Orientations & Triangulations Part 1: Rejects, Party of 3
by Nineofwords
Summary: Thundercracker returns home, a disgrace to Vosian society, a pariah. Little does he realize, the aft and the idiot he met on his first day will not only make his life completely miserable, but will shortly become the two most important people in it.
1. Prologue

**_1984_**

Thundercracker stared blankly at the energon chains shackled around his wrists. The Autobots hadn't put them on when they'd first thrown him in the meager cell; they hadn't felt the most docile member of the leading Decepticon trine had needed them.

The Autobots had reconsidered this stance when he'd nearly clawed Sunstreaker's optics out.

"Hello, Thundercracker," came a rumbling baritone voice from the other side of the bars.

The seeker raised his head and saw Optimus Prime himself sitting placidly in a chair in the hallway outside of his cell. Thundercracker blinked, surprised. _'Megatron would never have come down here if positions were reversed. He'd have sent one of us to do it for him, if he even bothered to do it at all.'_

_'Asshole.'_

Thundercracker raised his hand to his mouth to hide his smile, but the Prime's sharp eyes caught the expression. He quirked an eyebrow. "Something funny, Thundercracker?"

"Ah," Thundercracker said, quickly suppressing his smile. "Just…I didn't expect to see the leader of the Autobots _here_. And not…you know, sitting here in the dark with me, actually looking me in the optics."

"Yes, I can see how that might surprise you." He leaned back slightly, clearly making himself more comfortable. "I take it Megatron doesn't often grace the dungeons with his presence?"

Thundercracker snorted in amusement, then tried to cover it by clearing grit from his voicebox. "That was more or less what I was thinking."

The two shared a moment of silence, each considering the shared observation on Megatron's habits. It didn't last long, however. "I take it you're not here to talk about Megatron's prison visiting schedule," he said, guessing at the reason for Prime's presence.

"Unfortunately not." Prime put his elbows on his knees, his posture pensive. "Thundercracker, I wanted to talk to you about Sunstreaker."

"TC," Thundercracker interrupted.

Prime blinked. "What?"

Thundercracker vented. "Call me TC. Everyone else does." Prime tilted his head to the side inquisitively, and Thundercracker plowed on. "It just saves time. Really the only people who call me Thundercracker are people who are mad at me or giving me orders."

After a few moments, Prime said quietly "I don't know that I feel comfortable calling you that. Given the circumstances."

"Oh. Right." He really should have thought of how awkward it would be to call an enemy prisoner by a somewhat affectionate nickname. He didn't even know _why_ he'd said it, he'd just sort of blurted it out. He was nervous, and having serious second thoughts, and the cell was too small, too cramped, claustrophobic and oppressive in its restriction.

_'Nice going, there, crackpot. REAL smooth - '_

_'Shut up. I didn't ASK to - '_

"Thundercracker," Prime was speaking again and Thundercracker had to listen. "I'm concerned about your outburst earlier today. It seemed very unlike you. Many of my chief officers were all for sedating you and cutting you open to make sure you were not infected with something. I managed to convince them to let me talk to you first. I . . . need to know what was going on in your head at the time."

The unspoken hung between them: If Thundercracker didn't explain himself satisfactorily, they were going to cut him open anyway.

_'Over my dead body.'_

Thundercracker's expression was grim. "Prime, do you know what the difference is between a seeker and a Cybertronian who turns into a jet?"

The Prime took a moment to consider that. "Seekers tend to be faster, don't they? They're also…how to put this delicately…?"

"Don't be delicate. I'm a 'Con, sir. I'm used to it."

"Well…they tend to be pretty nasty fighters."

Thundercracker snorted. "That's your worst? You Autobots _are_ tame." For a half-second, Thundercracker was afraid he'd just offended one of his jailors. But Prime merely quirked an optic ridge, and Thundercracker relaxed slightly.

"That may be true," Prime said wryly. "But then what does it say about you Decepticons that we can force you to retreat so easily?"

Thundercracker allowed himself a tiny and fleeting smile. "You're alright, Prime. For an Autobot."

"I have often thought the same of you. But that incident with Sunstreaker - "

"Alright, alright," Thundercracker said. "Point taken." He looked at the chains on his wrists again. They were heavy, and he didn't like having them there. "The difference between your run-of-the-mill jet and a seeker is the trine."

There was a silence, and then, "Thundercracker, I don't understand what this has to do with - "

"I swear it's relevant," Thundercracker cut in quickly. "You really have no understanding whatsoever about what it means to be a member of a trine. At all. And seeing as you're a grounder, you're never _going_ to understand it. So, frankly, I'm not gonna waste my time trying to explain.

"What you _can_ understand is this: I can't stand Starscream." Prime frowned in confusion, but Thundercracker pressed on, ignoring him. "But as his trine mate, I reserve the right to dislike him as long as I can fly with him. Trines are all about flight, Prime. They evolved simultaneously with our need to fly. And even though I can't stand the aft, he _is_ still part of my trine. So I don't particularly like it when people threaten him."

"And is that what Sunstreaker did?" Optimus asked.

Thundercracker nodded. He clipped a section of the recording he was making of everything going on around him - Soundwave would have his head if he didn't turn it in upon his release. He sent the clipping through the external speakers he used when he was in vehicle mode. It was a bit odd hearing an Autobot's vocal tones coming through his speakers, and he gritted his denta as he again heard what had set him off in the first place: _"The next time I see your cowardly boyfriend, I'll be sure to give the gray and red bastard an extra special pounding from you. He likes it in the aft, right?"_

It was unmistakably Sunstreaker's voice, mocking and crude. Prime looked taken aback by this, but Thundercracker was staring at his manacles again, his hands clenched tightly, and didn't take notice.

"That was out of line," Prime said, sounding genuinely angry now for the first time. "I will have a talk with Sunstreaker about that." After a moment, the Autobot leader spoke again, and he sounded much calmer. "Thundercracker, I am truly very sorry that you had to experience that. I shouldn't have put you in that position."

"No," Thundercracker agreed, looking up to stare straight into the Prime's optic. "You shouldn't've."

Prime winced slightly. Thundercracker felt no remorse at this; he remembered the last time he'd encountered the lambo twins. They'd used their so-called 'jet judo' to bring Skywarp down. For what felt like an eternity, Thundercracker felt the terror and pain the other mech was feeling through their spark-bond, and the only thing he'd been able to think was _'He's going to die. He's going to die, and there's nothing I can do to save him.'_ Thank Primus there were always three members of a trine.

They stared at each other for a long while. Finally, Prime rose. "Thank you for your honesty. Cooperation is always appreciated." Thundercracker just nodded. "If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to call. We've disabled your comm system for security reasons, but there's an external comm system in your cell. Red Alert reserves the right to turn it off at any time, so don't abuse that privilege."

"Prime?" Thundercracker asked as the mech was leaving.

_'Just what the fuck do you think you're doing?'_

_'Will you please shut up?'_

_'No, I will not shut up. You're about to blow absolutely everything! If anyone should be shutting up, it's YOU!'_

"Yes?" Prime asked, turning to look at Thundercracker.

The blue mech looked away guiltily. "I uh…I just wanted to thank you. You know. For...for not immediately cutting me open. For giving me the benefit of the doubt."

Prime offered him a small smile. "We do things a little differently here, Thundercracker. I have a feeling we could get along well, should you choose to join us."

Thundercracker shook his head. "You can't ask me to leave my trine, Prime."

The Autobot leader only nodded. "I thought that would be your answer. But I also thought it would be only fair to ask, should I be wrong.'"

"Yeah. Um, look, speaking of asking things you shouldn't," Thundercracker went on quickly, "I want to ask you to take the night off. In like...a couple days?"

Prime turned to face him. "What?" he asked a little incredulously.

"I just…nevermind. Forget it." Thundercracker mumbled and looked away.

_'Oh, you IDIOT!'_

_'What?'_

_'Not YOU, you moron, the OTHER moron!'_

Prime kept talking, but Thundercracker just tuned him out. He'd gotten quite used to tuning out people talking. He'd had to – he was trine-bound to Skywarp and Starscream, after all.

Eventually, Optimus Prime realized that Thundercracker wasn't going to answer, and left. Thundercracker relaxed against the wall, and shuttered his optics. It was common knowledge that trines tended to sparkbond – so common in fact, that most grounders thought it was the rule. This was an assumption that Thundercracker capitalized on now. Sparkbonds allowed the individuals to feel what their partner or partners were feeling, but not to speak with them. As far as the Autobots were concerned, with his comms off, TC was well and truly cut off from his team.

They had no idea what trinebonds actually _were_.

He accessed his HUD, his trine-mate's vitals streaming steady in a side window. _'Guys'_ he sent. '_It's time to start the party._'

Starscream's voice replied, sour. '_You mean the headache_.'

Thundercracker smirked. '_Yeah. That_.'

Everything was going according to plan.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - Broken, Blue, and How-do-you-do?**

* * *

"You'll be staying in here," Airlock said, gesturing at the new quarters. Thundercracker blinked, then frowned. The surgery he'd undergone hadn't even been finished two hours ago, and already he was being shuffled around like a class of sparklings.

Airlock rattled off a list of things Thundercracker needed to know about the room and his expectations. Thundercracker wasn't really listening, which Airlock must have realized. He shoved a datapad under Thundercracker's nose. "The docs told me you'd be out of it," the space shuttle said, with a shake of his head. "But still. You don't hear of seekers leaving their trines too often these days."

Thundercracker could only nod. With another pitying shake of his head, Airlock left the quarters, leaving Thundercracker alone with his room, his baggage, and the personal items he'd chosen to take with him.

He'd spent nearly a decade with his trine. They'd gravitated together because they were all good at reading others and interacting with them. They'd had similar tastes, similar senses of humor, similar routines, hell, even similar frame types, even before they'd changed their armor to match. They had seemed like a trine created by Primus himself.

_'Well that's all gone to slag now,'_ Thundercracker thought, feeling the strangely hollow ring to his thoughts. He found that he didn't particularly like the sensation. He felt groggy and unfocused, and certainly not in any particular command over himself.

It was several hours before he managed to get off his berth and will his legs to carry him to the cantina. Apparently, to his chagrin, he'd picked the prime time for when young seekers went to mingle, so the refueling station was packed with more people than he felt capable of dealing with.

The Academy on Vos was where all seekers were raised and taught. As sparklings, they lived and learned together in groups, usually under a single trine, with one member being their primary mentor. As the sparklings got older and learned self-sufficiency, they were placed in dorms with two other roommates, to prepare them for when they would be spending their days with their trine. Three years before seekers officially came of age, they lived in single dorms and structured their time as they saw fit. It was a lesson in individuality, a chance for seekers to take a good hard look at who they were and what they wanted from life before they made the choice of who their trine-mates were going to be.

Thundercracker remembered those three years very well. One of his previous trine members had been in his graduating year, and another had been a year behind them. By law, Thundercracker and his partner had had to wait for their third member to catch up. Trine-less seekers were allowed to live in the academy after they'd graduated, but no mech was allowed to leave without having lived those three years on his own. The three years symbolized the trine, and the three core principles behind the idea of the trine: cooperation, competition, and individuality. Most mechs waited a few years after graduation to form their trines. In hindsight, Thundercracker wished he'd been among them.

Now, staring at the young seekers - both in their three year final stretch and beyond - running here and there, socializing, forming the relationships that would eventually lead to the all-important trine, Thundercracker wished it more than ever.

He probably wasn't the oldest untrined mech on the premises. Most mechs isolated from their trine, either by death or choice, returned to the academy as their haven. All un-bonded seekers under the legal Cybertronian age of fifty years were welcome there. Still, Thundercracker was willing to bet that he was probably the last choice any seeker would make as an addition to a trine. After all, what sane, healthy mech abandoned their trine after ten years of dedication? While it wasn't unheard of, leaving one's trine had that stigma of mental instability – there _had_ to be something wrong with a mech if he wasn't willing to work it out with his trine.

Thundercracker surveyed the room, scanning for empty seats, when he noticed something odd. Despite how crowded the large dining area was, there was a table in the back that had only one occupant sitting at it. _'The reject table,'_ Thundercracker thought. _'Guess I just found where I belong.'_

He approached the table, cube in hand, when the occupant - a thin, scrappy-looking seeker - snarled at him, wings flaring out in hostility. "I don't want to _talk_ or be _friends_" he snapped at Thundercracker. "Just move along and leave me alone."

Thundercracker stared at him. He could probably take the guy in a fight, but he didn't want it to come to that. He didn't want to small-talk with the other mechs in the cantina either, and this all-but-empty table in the farthest corner of the room seemed like the perfect safe spot for him.

Well then. Decision made.

"Good," Thundercracker said, and set his cube down. He'd decided he was going to be honest with this particular mech. Hopefully it would get the guy to shut up and leave him alone faster. When the other mech looked startled and about to protest, Thundercracker explained: "I left my trine this morning. I don't want to talk about it, and I don't want to deal with a bunch of air-headed glitches about to come of age. So you refuel over there, I'll refuel over here, and we can ignore each other until one of us leaves. Deal?"

The stranger appraised Thundercracker, a trace of suspicion in his optics. "What kind of mentally deranged mech leaves his trine?" he asked, a mean sneer appearing on his face.

"What kind of socially deficient mech repels people so much that he gets a table all to himself at the height of refuel time?"

The scrawny mech said something, insulted him probably, but quickly settled back down when it was clear that Thundercracker wasn't paying attention. Thundercracker's head was still ringing from the echoing silence inside his cranium. He didn't realize it was possible for his processor to feel both too small _and_ too big at the same time, but it was.

The other mech was the first to leave, and Thundercracker made sure not to acknowledge his departure. He just wanted to refuel and collapse in his berth, and saying goodbye to such a rude glitch felt like more effort than he was currently capable of. He finished his own cube shortly after, knowing others would more than likely come to ask to join him now that the guy who radiated sheer hostility was gone.

Thundercracker was just in the middle of draining the last of his cube when he felt a servo tap his shoulder.

"I sit there," came a deep, warm-sounding voice.

Thundercracker turned around and looked at the seeker who'd spoken to him. "Oh, er, sorry, I was just leaving."

"Okay yeah, but I sit there. I _always_ sit is my is when I sit here."

"Er, I'm leaving, I'm leaving," Thundercracker said, getting out of the chair."Calm down, it's fine, see? Have your seat back."

The mech didn't sit down, though; he stood facing Thundercracker a little longer. "I come here, and sit here _now_. This is my time to sit here. I don't want you sitting here at my time again."

"Easy buddy," Thundercracker said, smiling to try and show the mech he'd meant no harm. "I didn't know this was your seat, but I do now, so I won't sit here again. Okay?"

The mech stared at him suspiciously. "Promise?"

"I promise. Why don't you sit down and enjoy your energon? It'll probably be way more enjoyable than talking to me."

The mech gave Thundercracker one last distrustful look, but then did as Thundercracker suggested. As soon as he sat down, he seemed to completely forget that Thundercracker was there.

_'Well thank Primus for that,'_ Thundercracker thought, making his way through the thinning cantina towards the door and to his sweet, sweet berth. '_Weirdo.'_

* * *

For quite some time, Thundercracker didn't feel like himself. He went through the motions, smiled at the right times, nodded his head and said 'good morning' when he was supposed to, but it was exhausting. People were exhausting.

He supposed it was a side effect of the surgery. His head, once filled with the racket of two brash, loud trinemates, was now empty, desolate, barren. The silence in his head was crushing, an oppressive force that had a presence of its own, and every time he went to talk with others, he was struck by the lack of running commentary in the back of his head, the solitude.

The first few days, he searched for company, hoping that the interactions with other people would make the loneliness a bit less overbearing. He shortly revised his decision. The other Academy seekers were young, inexperienced, social. Their smiles were searching, their inquiries personal, and their conversations inevitably looped back to the subject of trines. To the subject of _his_ trine. His _past_ trine.

Thundercracker didn't really want to talk about it.

So he locked his doors, sat at his desk, and studied. He found articles and read them, found textpads and annotated them, found professional compilations on democracy and social change and government and _memorized them_, smothering the silence at the back of his mind with information. His head still echoed, but that was okay. He was distracted.

Find that he was stuck with himself once more, Thundercracker began to return to an old goal he'd had; it seemed far more likely to happen now that he was on his own.

Before they'd broken up, Thundercracker's trine had bounded between jobs. as with most young seekers, they'd had more of an interest in having fun and out-flying other trines than they'd had with being productive members of society. Still, they'd taken odd jobs as dock workers, energon refiners, data imputers, and they'd even done a brief stint as store clerks.

Now though, Thundercracker was unencumbered by two knowledge-phobic flyboys. When he was younger, Thundercracker had had a dream of graduating from the University of Iacon. It was the most prestigious university on Cybertron, and it was virtually unheard of for seekers to graduate from it. Now, with no one weighing him down, it would be easier to apply and get in. _'Besides,'_ whispered a particularly dark corner of his mind, _'It'll give you somewhere to go if you never trine again.'_Thundercracker ignored the voice as best he could. It helped to bury himself in literature from his core interests - psychology, sociology, diplomacy.

When he wasn't reading, he was either sleeping or refueling. One of the side effects of this decision, however, was that whenever he had to go to the cantina, he inevitably ended up sitting at the desolate table in the back. Usually when Thundercracker showed up, it was empty. As a general rule, he didn't like to stick to a specific schedule every day, and so occasionally he would show up and find the small, angry seeker sitting at the table. They'd bicker before falling into hostile silence to refuel, and then one of them would leave. At first, he'd thought these interactions would grate on him, but to his surprise he found himself looking forward to the arguments. It was clear that neither of them took their insults seriously, and when he wasn't being an aft, the other mech was surprisingly witty.

At other times, he'd run into the deep-voiced mech. _The weird one._ Both seekers had more of a schedule than Thundercracker himself, but the bigger guy adhered to his much more could never really think of anything to say when in the presence of the big seeker, and so they normally just sat across from each other in a sort of awkward silence. At least, it was awkward for Thundercracker. He had no idea if the bigger mech thought so as well.

About once a week, a gaggle of seekers would join the big seeker. Thundercracker had no idea that this happened until he came to the cantina and found his usual table _overrun _with strangers. It had not been a pleasant day for him, and he'd had to make the choice between food or peace and quiet. He'd opted to wait to refuel until the table had cleared again. It had taken two and a half hours, and he had been very ticked off by the time he'd actually managed to get a table all to himself.

* * *

"Why do you always sit _here_?" the small mech snapped one day, breaking the silence that had become the norm. "Do I attract mopey morons, or something? And I a loser magnet now?"

Thundercracker took a casual sip of his energon before answering calmly "I'm not the only loser sitting at this table."

This didn't seem to faze the other. "No, seriously; what kind of loser leaves his trine and comes crawling back to this hellhole? Wasn't there somewhere better for you to go?"

Thundercracker felt his wings tense. He raised an eyebrow, hoping to affect indifference. "I don't understand why you'd care, but any fool knows that seekers can't fly without their trine. And if you can't fly, what are you?"

Normally, Scrappy (as Thundercracker was privately calling the mech) would've snapped back with "Are you calling me a fool?" if he followed the normal structure that their conversations usually took. But he didn't. Instead, he continued pressing the point. "So you're saying that seekers are nothing if they can't fly. Which, by extension, means that seekers are nothing without their trine. Is that what you're saying? I think that's what you're saying." Scrappy leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. "So how come you left them then, if you're nothing without your trine?"

Thundercracker froze, startled. Then his wings flared up angrily. "Who do you think you are, asking me about my private business?"

"Oh, no one," Scrappy said sarcastically, rolling his optics for good measure. "Just the mech you've been eating dinner with for months. The mech who's personal space you violated without so much as a 'hi, my name is', and who let you sit here anyway. The mech who already openly dislikes you, and so doesn't really give a damn about you one way or the other."

Thundercracker's wings were twitching, as they tended to do when he was mildly surprised. Had he really not introduced himself when he'd first sat at the table? He quickly regained his hostile posture, and bristled. "Well it's not like you gave me a _chance_," he snapped back. "I couldn't even sit down before you started biting my head off!"

Scrappy scoffed and waved a hand dismissively. "You think _that_ was me biting your head off? You need to toughen up."

Thundercracker clenched his hands under the table so that Scrappy wouldn't see how upset he was. "That was," he bit out, "My first informal social interaction after I'd undergone _major processor surgery_. And you not only made me feel thoroughly unwelcome, but like I was scum. You think I need to toughen up? I think maybe _you_ need to get _your_ processor checked."

Scrappy stared at Thundercracker in amusement. "You do that well," he said, sneering. "You sound totally calm. But the twitchy wings tell me a different story." He drummed his servos on the table. "Speaking of stories, are you going to tell me yours, or am I going to have to guess?" He grinned broadly, and it was not a kind smile.

Thundercracker stared him down from across the table and refused to answer.

"Guessing it is then," Scrappy said merrily and examined his servos as though he were thinking. His optics flicked up to Thundercracker abruptly and he said "They dumped you for being so lame."

Thundercracker rolled his optics. "I don't have to take this," he said, and moved to grab his energon cube. Scrappy was a lot faster than Thundercracker, though, because he snatched it up before Thundercracker could lay a servo on it.

"Uh uh uh," Scrappy said delightedly, sloshing the cube enticingly. "You're not going anywhere with this until I've had my fun."

Thundercracker glared at Scrappy. "You do realize that I can just go and get myself another cube, right?"

Scrappy chuckled. "Yeah, you can. You can wait in that line over there," he said gesturing with his head toward the energon dispensers. It was prime refuel time, and nearly everyone was in the cantina, and at least half of them were in line for energon. "And after that, you get to pay shanix for taking more fuel than you need. Oooor," he said, his voice taking on a playful tone, "you can sit pretty until I get bored of asking you questions and give you your meal back." That shit eating grin of his reappeared. "Your choice."

Thundercracker's wings twitched down slightly in annoyance. "Fine." He crossed his arms. "But you're kidding yourself if you think I'm gonna answer any of your questions."

Scrappy shrugged, smirking at him. He drummed his servos on the rim of Thundercracker's cube possessively. "Let's begin then, shall we? What's the story? Was it them?" he asked, cocking his head slightly. "The two twits who decided you weren't worth their time, who decided you were too useless to be a member of their trine, did they think you were holding them back?" His optics bore into Thundercracker, but Thundercracker just kept his arms crossed. "No? Were _they_ holding _you_ back, these big dumb hulking brutes of yours?" Thundercracker was about to interrupt, but thought better of it. If he let Scrappy run himself down, it'd all be over quickly.

The other mech paused, tapping the cube deliberately a few times, lips pursed in concentration. "Bad fliers were they? Nooo…hm. They weren't actually stupid, were they? A pair of idiotic deadbeats that – oh, there we go." It suddenly occurred to Thundercracker that Scrappy wasn't staring at _him_, but at his _wings_. He quickly flattened the offensive appendages and _glared_.

"You nosy little _glitch_, you've been looking at my wings!"

"Um, yeah?" Scrappy said like it should have been absolutely obvious. "Why ask you a question you're not going to answer when your wings are so much more forthcoming? Seekers lie. Their wings don't."

Thundercracker felt like his privacy was being violated somehow. He stood up. He was willing to put up with a silly line and a little fine if it meant he didn't have to put up with the utter _child_ sitting across from him.

"Oh sit down," Scrappy said, and the way he said it suggested he expected compliance. He twirled Thundercracker's cube between his hands. "You know, this would be _ever_ so much easier if you just _told_ me your story instead of making me guess it."

"Get fragged," Thundercracker seethed. He could feel himself shaking slightly from his anger. He managed to keep most of himself in check, but his damn traitorous wings were quivering.

"I don't see why you're getting so upset with _me_," Scrappy sounded indignant, like he hadn't just gone prying into Thundercracker's personal life. "I was just talking. _You_ were the one who's wings twitched every time I said something about your ex-trine. Besides, if _you_ left _them_, I don't understand why you're so upset about-"

"Because, you stupid little glitch-head," Thundercracker hissed at him, finally losing his cool. "Just because nobody likes _you_, doesn't mean other people can't like _each other_. You have no idea what happened between us, you have no _business_ knowing, and if you think you can bully me into talking about my own personal slag, you've got another thing coming. I only sat with you because your presence is so repulsive that no one will come near you, and it was convenient for me to avoid people until I was ready to go looking for a new trine. You can rust to death for all I care, you miserable, pathetic antisocial excuse for a seeker. I never want to see your horrible face again. Just leave me alone. Do us all a favor, and just leave us all alone. You're clearly not wanted here. Get lost."

Thundercracker turned on his heel and stormed out of the cantina, energon be damned. He'd come back later when he'd cooled off, and top off his fuel reserves when he didn't feel like strangling everyone who so much as looked at him.

* * *

For several weeks, Thundercracker avoided the main mess hall as much as he could. He'd eat at odd hours, and usually wouldn't linger any more than absolutely necessary. He didn't want to take the chance that Scrappy might change his schedule just to continue his harassment of Thundercracker, so he picked the hours he knew no one in their right processor would be out of their berths.

So it was some time before he heard the news.

Thundercracker was still getting used to leaving of his rooms and socializing again. He could really only handle it in small bursts, but he was trying again. It was a step in the right direction.

A few weeks after the fight, he happened to pass by the large mech. The purple one. The weirdo. The mech slowed down and stared hard at Thundercracker, squinting slightly.

Thundercracker stopped as well, frowning in confusion. "Um…can I help you?"

The big mech nodded. "Chair thief."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You stole my chair."

"Er…yeah," Thundercracker said uncomfortably. "I've sat with you sometimes too, though. Um, that is, when your friends weren't hanging out with you."

He nodded solemnly, and Thundercracker fidgeted.

"Uh…was there, erm…was there something you wanted…?" He realized that he didn't know the mech's name. "Hey, what's your name, anyway?"

"Skywarp," the big mech responded.

"Thundercracker," Thundercracker answered, extending a hand.

Skywarp looked at the hand like he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Slowly, almost uncertainly, he also extended his hand, mirroring Thundercracker's gesture. Thundercracker grabbed Skywarp's hand in a handshake. "It's nice to officially meet you," Thundercracker told him.

"We've met," Skywarp assured Thundercracker, as thought Thundercracker had forgotten this fact.

"Er…right." Thundercracker removed his hand. "So…yeah, did you need something from me?"

"Hm? Oh…" Skywarp stared off into space scowling in deep concentration. His face suddenly lit up. "No, I don't need anything."

"O…kay…" Thundercracker said. He felt like the conversation was done, but Skywarp just kept smiling at him. "Um…so why were you staring at me just now?"

"Was I?" Skywarp asked.

_Primus,_Thundercracker thought. _This mech is missing more than a few screws._"Yeah, you were," he said out loud.

"Huh. I probably was trying to remember where I know you from."

Oh for the love of- "Dinner," Thundercracker said, the patience in his voice growing thinner even as he said it. "We eat dinner together sometimes."

"Oh yeah!" Skywarp said, grinning brightly. "You're that weirdo who sits with Starscream."

_'WEIR - you cannot be serious,'_Thundercracker thought before he could stop himself. Luckily it stayed safely in his processor, and didn't come out to offend Skywarp. Also, "Starscream?"

"Yeah. The guy you sit with. The angry little guy."

The afthead glitch. '_His name is Starscream?'_ "Yeah, I guess I've sat with him a few times."

"You wouldn't happen to know where he is, would you?"

Thundercracker frowned. "No. Why, should I?"

Misreading his expression, Skywarp took a step back. "Sorry, didn't mean to make you angry. 'S just that no one's really seen him in a while."

"No, I'm not - " Primus, this guy was took a deep vent to calm and center himself. "I'm not angry, Skywarp," he said, adding a reassuring smile to prove it. Skywarp smiled back. "It's just that we weren't really…_close_, Starscream and me."

"Oh." Now Skywarp frowned. "But you guys were always sitting together."

"'Always' is a bit of a stretch," Thundercracker informed him dryly.

Skywarp shrugged. "Okay." He turned to continue on his way up the corridor.

"Er, wait!" Thundercracker called. When Skywarp turned and looked at him inquisitively, head cocked to the side, Thundercracker felt foolish. He'd called out because Skywarp hadn't bothered to initiate any of the parting pleasantries that usually preceded a mech leaving a conversation, and it had thrown him off guard. He now scrambled for something to say. "Um, h-how long _has_ Starscream been gone?"

Again Skywarp shrugged. "Few days maybe? Friend of mine said she saw him heading for the take-off areas after we got some of ours scores back. She said he was going for a hike."

Thundercracker frowned more deeply this time. Skywarp's friend had probably said Starscream should _take_ a hike and Skywarp had merely misinterpreted it. "He's been gone a few days you said? Has anyone seen him since your friend?"

Skywarp thought about that for a very long time. "No," he finally said. "I think one of the flight instructors said something about throwing a party for him, though. Dunno why. He usually doesn't get the greatest marks in anything that ain't science."

Thundercracker took a deep ventilation to prevent himself from yelling at Skywarp and shaking the mech to get him to think faster. "Okay, Skywarp? This is really important: Was the party your instructor was talking about a _search_ party?"

Again, it took Skywarp an agonizing eternity to come to a conclusion. "You know, I think it was," he said brightly.

_Slag. Slaggitall, dammit_. Thundercracker had said some rather nasty things to the mech. Starscream didn't seem to have very many friends (and what a surprise that was, wow) so it probably hadn't helped much that Thundercracker had told him that no one liked him. On top of that, if he'd gotten bad marks, that might be enough to make him want to leave…

Thundercracker's wings started twitching, and they didn't stop. Skywarp eyed the movement, concern glinting in his optics.

"You okay?" Skywarp asked, putting a hand on Thundercracker's shoulder.

"No," Thundercracker said with a bitter laugh. "I…I said some mean things to Starscream the last time I saw him. I'm worried that I'm the reason, or part of it anyway, that he's missing. And that's, I mean, I guess . . . I need to set this right."

"I'll help you," Skywarp instantly piped up.

"Er, you do realize that he's probably _outside_ the academy somewhere?"

"Oh." Skywarp scowled, thinking. "But he shouldn't be there. You have to fly to get around the city, and people aren't supposed to fly without a trine."

"Right," Thundercracker said. "So I'm thinking he's probably not in the city. He'd stand out too much and get sent straight back here." He vented heavily and drew a servo across his faceplates. "Right, I'm gonna need to grab a spare energon cube and probably a map of the surrounding badlands. If you wanna help, you can start by getting me those things."

Skywarp nodded and, much to Thundercracker's surprise, grabbed him by the servo and started towing him along the corridor.

"Wait, what are you - "

"Starscream's mean," Skywarp interrupted, pulling Thundercracker at high speed around corners and down passageways, knocking into more than a few mechs in the process. "But he shouldn't be out in the badlands. It's dangerous out there." He glanced back at Thundercracker. "You're smart. You know where to find him, so we can bring him back and he can be safe."

Thundercracker was about to protest that he had _no_ idea where they were even supposed to start looking for the mech in question, but just then he was nearly slammed into another person as Skywarp took a corner, and Thundercracker instead found himself half-shouting apologies to the mech he'd nearly ploughed over. After that, he focused strictly on keeping up with Skywarp and not killing people by accident as they ran through the halls.

Skywarp came to an abrupt stop and, not anticipating it, Thundercracker skidded halfway down the hallway before he was able to stop properly. By the time he'd come back, Skywarp was pressing a cube of energon into his servos. "Okay. Now what?"

Boy, this mech wasn't one for messing around, was he? "Now," Thundercracker said, storing the energon cube carefully in a subspace compartment, "I need a map. And…don't you have, I dunno, class or something?"

"Yeah," Skywarp said, shrugging. "But I kinda thought Starscream being in trouble was kinda more important than that."

Thundercracker shot him a quizzical look. "I'm sorry…have I missed something? Are you two friends?"

Skywarp shook his head vigorously. "Nope. We're not friends. He's mean. He doesn't like me. Said so himself. But he's in trouble, right? So we gotta help him."

For a moment, Thundercracker could only stare in amazement at Skywarp. Who _was_ this mech that he was willing to just drop everything to rescue a mech he didn't particularly like? Was he just that stupid? Thundercracker shook himself free of his musings. If Starscream had been missing for days, he was probably on the brink of offlining due to lack of fuel. They had to find him _fast_. "Okay Skywarp, do you have a map for me too?"

"Oh yeah, right," Skywarp said and promptly pinged Thundercracker a request to use his private communication system.

"Um, Skywarp?" Thundercracker asked tentatively.

"Yes?"

"What are you doing?"

"Sending you the map, of course."

"Er…right." He hesitated a moment. The last time he'd let someone onto his personal comm frequency had been a member of his trine. He pushed that thought aside – it wasn't going to help anybody. He granted the request, and Skywarp sent Thundercracker a condensed file.

Thundercracker opened and whistled. The map Skywarp had sent him was an unbelievably detailed overview of the city of Vos and the entire surrounding geography within a hundred kilometers. "This is really impressive, Skywarp. Where'd you get it?"

Skywarp cocked his head. "Get it?"

"Yeah. What datapad did you upload it from?" he asked a little distractedly. He'd found out that not only was the map incredibly detailed, but he was able to zoom in and out on any location he selected. This was some remarkably high-tech stuff for an unbound, legally minor seeker to have his servos on. Thundercracker was willing to bet shanix that Skywarp had gotten it illicitly, for all that seemed unlikely by his disarming naivety.

"Didn't upload it," Skywarp said, with some confusion. "Made it."

Thundercracker stopped playing with the map, stopped moving period. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, "But it sounded like you just said that you _made_ this map."

"Yup," Skywarp said. "It was kinda tricky, not having actually seen any of it before. And some of the sources I had to use were a little out of date." Skywarp wrung his hands, his wings fluttering nervously. "Can you use it?"

"Use it?" Thundercracker said with a laugh. "This is better than anything I could have hoped for! Remind me to do something really _really_ nice for you in the very near future." Skywarp was probably just confused again. When he had time, Thundercracker was going to figure out where the slow mech had gotten his servos on such a thing. Thundercracker scanned the map, zooming in on the areas closest to the most likely door Starscream had taken to leave based on Skywarp's descriptions. "Okay, looks like the most likely places he could be are in the northeast by eastern areas, so let's start looking there. We should probably start with caves, overhangs, anything that'd give him cover and make it harder for him to be spotted."

Together, the two seekers bolted out of the academy's compound. Skywarp slowed as he approached the hangar, but Thundercracker bolted across the floor at full speed. Once in the hanger, he transformed mid-stride, and barrelled down the runway - he achieved take-off speed in record time.

It was the first time he'd flown since disconnecting with his trine, and he felt shaky and unbalanced. There was nothing there to hold onto, no supplementary information, no one to watch his back and verify his position. He felt fragile and small, like the slightest breeze would blow him easily off course.

Thundercracker heard the ping as Skywarp requested the use of his comms.

_[[I don't think we're supposed to be out here unsupervised,]]_ Skywarp said with uncertainty.

_[[Well we can't find Starscream if we aren't out here, now can we?]]_ Thundercracker explained patiently. _[[Besides, I'm a legal adult. I'm technically supervision.]] _This seemed to satisfy Skywarp a bit.

_[[Should we split up? We might find him faster that way.]]_

_[[We might, or we might get lost, and then we'd be way back at square one. I'd rather not risk it.]]_

_[[Don't worry. I won't get lost.]]_

_[[Sure, sure,]] _Thundercracker said dismissively, not completely believing him. The air-head would probably get lost the second Thundercracker took his eyes off him.

* * *

The two flew for hours, criss-crossing the open plains in what they hoped was an organized manner. Of the two, Thundercracker was more used to seeing the world from above, and didn't feel the need to gawk like Skywarp was. And the more time they spent in the air, the more comfortable Thundercracker found he was without his trine to back him up. He was certainly a far more cautious flier than he'd ever been before in his life, but as the hours dragged on he could feel the shakiness in his flight patterns start to smooth out.

Occasionally Skywarp would attempt to start up conversation, but it was inane chatter, an attempt to break the quiet. Thundercracker would draw his attention back to scanning the ground for Scrappy. Starscream. Whatever.

_'How much fuel did he have before he came all the way out here?' _Thundercracker wondered as his gaze swept back and forth across the barren, red-orange landscape. '_And how did he travel? Skywarp said he went out the hangar, but I hope not. That would've taken so much energy out of him, energy he just doesn't have to spare. It's entirely possible that we're too late if he flew all the way out here. Primus, I hope we're not too late.'_

As he was about to suggest to Skywarp that they change course and start circling back to see if they'd missed anything, he noticed the sun glancing off something off to his right.

_[[Skywarp! I think I see something!]]_

He gave Skywarp the rough coordinates of where he'd seen the flash, and they flew over to get a better look.

Half-hidden behind a small cliff was the small, hunched body of Starscream. He seemed unconscious, but still alive, thankfully. Thundercracker let out a small vent of relief and a silent prayer of thanks to Primus. Then he bent down to examine Starscream more closely.

There were dents on his armor that were consistent with falling out of the sky. Every seeker knew the look of those dents from their younger days. Off to their left, there was a row of tall columned stones that stuck up like fingers straight into the air. Starscream had probably clipped that going at full speed and had landed on the patch of ground where he was still slumped. Grit was caked on him, with only sections of his armor peeking through. Thundercracker didn't see any energon pooling around him, but that didn't mean anything - he could easily have internal injuries. The thought scared him.

"Hey, Starscream," Thundercracker said soothingly, pulling the energon cube out of subspace and started trying to coax the energon down the downed seeker's throat. To Skywarp, he spoke through their comms so Starscream, if he was still conscious, wouldn't get freaked.

_[[I think he's okay for the most part. I don't see any energon on the ground, but I'm worried he might be hurt inside.]]_

"Okay," Skywarp said out loud.

Thundercracker was about suggest that Skywarp only use the comms, but then thought better of it. He could try and explain the idea behind not stressing Starscream out, but that would take too much time, and Starscream wasn't waking up. Giving up on the energon - nothing was making it down anyways - he reached out and gently shook Starscream, calling his name. Starscream remained motionless.

"Okay, he's not responding to anything." He rocked back on his heels. He was really starting to panic now, but he was determined to remain calm in the face of Starscream and Skywarp. "He probably hit his head in that fall. We…we need to get him back to the academy so they can fix him, but I don't think we should move him." He rubbed his face. "Slaggit, I don't want to leave him alone. One of us needs to stay with him." He nibbled on his lipplates. "Do you think you'd be able find your way back here if you went for help?" He didn't particularly trust Skywarp with the task of staying with Starscream, _or_ with being able to find his way back. Thundercracker knew how very easy it was to become disoriented without your trine. On the other hand, there was that delightful little map, so he _hoping_ Skywarp could manage to navigate without him.

"Uh, yeah, I could do that, but - "

"Good." He knelt down and wrapped his arms around his knees protectively. "You should hurry. I don't…I don't know how badly he's hurt."

Out of the corner of his optic, Skywarp started to shift a little. "If you want us to hurry, I've, um, I've got a better idea."

Thundercracker frowned. _Skywarp_ had an idea? "Uh…what is it?"

"We won't have to move Starscream, but, um…I've, um…I've never really…done this with other people before." He shrugged. "Should be fine, though." Quickly, he knelt down next to Thundercracker and grabbed his arm.

"Hey, what are you - " But Thundercracker was cut off by his entire world suddenly going black. Colors swirled behind his optics as he felt like he was being squeezed through a tight little tube.

He had no idea how long the weird hallucinations lasted, but his processor was pounding when they cleared up. His fuel tank was sloshing uncomfortably, too. "What…what the…"

Thundercracker was on his hands and knees on the ground, venting heavily, trying to force his processor and tank to settle. Near him, he could hear Skywarp venting hard too.

"It's…not usually…that hard…"

After Thundercracker was venting normally again, he managed to look up at Skywarp. He did a double-take, though, when he saw what was behind Skywarp.

They were on the front lawn of the academy.

Thundercracker turned wide optics on Skywarp. "Are…are you saying that…_you_…you can _teleport_?"

Skywarp nodded. "Yeah."

Thundercracker sat heavily on the ground. "And you didn't tell me about this before, because…?"

Skywarp shrugged. "Because you didn't ask."

Thundercracker couldn't help himself; he had to laugh at that. "Yeah…I guess I didn't." It was such a ridiculous thing to ask anyone, that even thinking about it made Thundercracker grin. Warping was a rare ability, almost completely unheard of.

He laughed even harder. "Oh Primus. _Skywarp_."

"What?"

"No, it's…your name."

"Um…yeah. It is."

"Yeah. I just…your name has the word '_warp'_ in it. I should've…it probably should have occurred to me. To ask, I mean."

Skywarp shrugged. "Didn't occur to anyone else."

Thundercracker chuckled again. He glanced around once more and saw the reason they were even talking about this in the first place. Starscream. Thundercracker got to his pedes with a slight groan. "One of us should go inside and get the doc."

Skywarp started getting to his pedes, but Thundercracker put a servo on his shoulder. "You stay here and watch 'im." He smiled. "You've done enough. Just…just rest here and keep an optic on him."

Skywarp sat down gratefully. "That was…that was really hard. Like…harder than normal."

Thundercracker didn't respond, though, because he was too busy running full out into the building where he'd spent the majority of his life. He knew every hallway of the academy better than he knew the insides of his ex- trine-mates' minds, and he knew the absolute fastest way to get to the office of the medical ward.

It took very little time to reach the medbay, and soon Thundercracker found himself skidding to a stop outside the entrance to the room he most desperately needed to get into.

He stuck his head in the doorway, and saw a few of the medical staff milling about. "Skywarp and I found Starscream," he said as quickly as he could. "He's not waking up."

Most of the mechs in the room froze, processing this, but the head of medicine began barking orders. "Where is he?"

"Outside."

"Show me."

Thundercracker lead the doctor through the corridors of the academy. As they ran the doctor, Stabilizer, started peppering him with questions about how they'd found him. Obviously, he'd known Starscream had been missing for a few days, and he wanted as much information on the state they'd found Starscream in.

"How did you get him here?" Stabilizer asked. "Please Primus tell me you didn't drag him all the way back here. If he has cranial damage, that is the absolute last thing you should have done."

"Er…" Thundercracker knew he should be completely honest with the doc, but Skywarps particular talent was pretty rare. If the doctor didn't know about it, he didn't want to be the one to out Skywarp. People tended to take advantage of mechs with peculiar abilities, particularly when said mechs were as unattached and as unintelligent as Skywarp was. "It wasn't that far…and we were really careful. We hardly even had to move him at all."

The doctor pursed his lipplates together like he didn't quite believe Thundercracker, but he let the issue lie. Instead, he started spouting off rapid-fire questions about Starscream's symptoms, most of which Thundercracker didn't know how to answer. He was relieved when they finally came upon the unconscious body of Starscream and the doctor dropped to the ground and immediately began examining him.

Thundercracker helped Skywarp, who still seemed utterly wiped, to his pedes. They both stood a little ways off and watched as Stabilizer tended to the downed seeker. Soon, a few of the other on-site medical staff came to assist him, bringing a gurney and medical supplies. One of them told Thundercracker and Skywarp that there was nothing they could do and that they should probably move along. Reluctantly, the two seekers trudged tiredly back inside.

They wandered into the cantina, neither wanting to go back to their respective rooms, and Skywarp not wanting to go to his classes. They grabbed their regular table in the back of the room.

"So…have you ever done that with other people before?" Thundercracker asked tentatively. He was pretty sure Skywarp had said something to that effect at least once during the day.

"Nope," Skywarp admitted.

"So how did you know it would _work_?"

Skywarp shrugged. "I didn't." Thundercracker felt belated panic grip his spark. They could have _died_, and Skywarp didn't seem to be too concerned about that fact. It was as though that particular fact hadn't occurred to Skywarp, which was entirely likely.

"Well," Thundercracker said, nervously changing the subject. "Um, h-how long have you been able to warp then?"

Skywarp thought about that for quite some time. "Dunno."

"Well…when was the first time that you…you know?"

"When was the first time that I what?"

Thundercracker vented. Skywarp really did need everything spelled out for him, didn't he? "When was the first time you warped?" he amended, trying not to be frustrated with Skywarp. The mech really did mean well, after all.

"Oh." Again, he really had to think about that. "Dunno for sure. I mean…I figured out how to do it quite a while ago. It's actually really really simple. I could show you how to do it if you wanted. I've always wanted to show somebody how to do it, nobody around here seems to be able to." He seemed so excited by the idea of sharing his talent with somebody else that Thundercracker really didn't have the spark to tell the poor guy that it was probably impossible for him to learn. These kinds of talents were rare, and Thundercracker was pretty sure they were innate, spark-borne gifts.

"Uh, yeah. Sure. Maybe later, after we find out how Starscream's doing."

"Oh. Yeah." Skywarp looked down. "I'd forgotten about him. What with the excitement and all."

Thundercracker resisted the urge to bury his head in his hands. Skywarp's capacity to get distracted by the smallest things was nothing short of amazing.

They sat in silence for a while. Thundercracker pulled up Skywarp's incredible map and started to fiddle with it some more. He tried to see how it was coded, but it all looked like a bunch of nonsensical gibberish to him. "Hey Skywarp?"

"Yeah?"

"Where did you say you got this thing again?" Thundercracker asked.

"I didn't 'get it'," Skywarp said a little indignantly.

"Okay, well then how do you have it? Did someone give it to you?" Skywarp shook his head. "Did you find it somewhere?" Again Skywarp shook his head. "Did you…did you steal it?"

Skywarp frowned. "Of course I didn't." he said. "Why would I steal a map when I can just make one myself?" He seemed only mildly offended by this accusation, but not nearly as much as Thundercracker was expecting him to be.

"Look, Skywarp, it's okay if you stole it. This is a really cool map, I probably would too if I knew I could get away with it." He probably wouldn't, but he wasn't going to say no to stolen goods when they were as magnificently detailed as this map.

"But I _didn't_ steal it!" Skywarp protested.

"Okay, okay, fine, have it your way." He wasn't going to argue with Skywarp if Skywarp was determined to keep up the charade. Hopefully, Skywarp would eventually trust him enough to tell him the truth.

They moved on from the subject of warping and maps. "Hey, didn't you say you had a class today? Why haven't you gone to that?"

Skywarp shrugged. "I don't like the class. I don't get a lot of what's going on in it."

Thundercracker laughed. "Well missing classes isn't going to help with that." He'd had more than enough experience with hating classes and ditching them.

Skywarp drooped a little. "Yeah. I know." He'd probably heard this from more than one source in the past.

Thundercracker had to smile ruefully at that. "But in my experience, I didn't use half of the crap I learned in my classes anyway. Most of it is just pointless anyway, I say."

Skywarp caught his optic and a slow smile spread across his face. "Hey…you know that you look a little like Starscream when you smile like that?"

Thundercracker was taken aback by this. He wasn't sure if it was a compliment or not, so he just said "Um…okay?"

They continued to talk for several hours about whatever came to mind. Eventually, one of the medical staff found them. "There you are," he said. "We've been looking all over for you. Stabilizer said you're the ones who brought him in?"

Thundercracker nodded, rising. "Is he awake?"

"No," the nurse said. "We got him stable, but he's resting now. The doctor needs to see you both in his office."

Thundercracker took a look at Skywarp. He didn't particularly like the sound of that. Skywarp, as usual, didn't seem too concerned. That just meant Thundercracker would do the worrying for both of them then. From what Thundercracker could tell, he was already doing a pretty good job of it. _'I hope he's not dead,'_Thundercracker thought as they were hustled down the hallway. Then, a bit of anger flaring, he realize it would be _so_ like that insufferable mech to go and get himself accidentally killed just to make Thundercracker feel guilty. Which, naturally, only made him feel guiltier for thinking.

Then, a bit of anger flaring, he realize it would be _so_ like that insufferable mech to go and get himself accidentally killed just to make Thundercracker feel guilty.

_Twit._

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ Hey all. I just wanted to let you know that I do have a plan for updating this monster of a thing - every two weeks you'll be getting a chapter. That means Aug 9 is when I post chapter 2. I also just wanted to give you a heads up that I will be more or less sticking to G1. So if there are certain characters whose deaths bother you, you might want to stop after part 2. Just saying. Enjoy. Have fun. Thank you for the follows, favorites, and reviews, and a massive thank-you to my editor and co-__conspirator, without whom this thing wouldn't have been born._


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - Rumor Has It**

* * *

Thundercracker shifted uneasily in his seat as he glanced around the room. Stabilizer sat silently in front of him, his hands steepled on his desk. The room was painfully bare, and Thundercracker found himself juggling his focus between Skywarp's untroubled face - which just made him cringe - and Stabilizer's deep, intimidating scowl.

Stabilizer, chief doctor at the academy, was a terrifying figure. He was one of the biggest seekers Thundercracker had ever seen, and his imposing stature was dwarfed only by his complete lack of humor. One of his trine-members, Wingflap, was an assistant dean at the school, and he was equally terrifying. Their third trine member, Pulley, worked on the janitorial team, and was perhaps one of the nicest mechs Thundercracker had ever met. It was a perfect example of how one could never tell who would work best together in a trine.

Thundercracker wished he was dealing with Pulley instead of staring into the steely eyes of the janitor's trine member.

"You will be pleased to know that Starscream sustained no permanent damage," Stabilizer told them, his voice low. Thundercracker tried not to shudder at that voice – it was a gorgeously silken baritone, one that he could almost feel rumbling through his core. But when Stabilizer lowered his voice, as he was doing just then, it felt like he was getting ready to gut someone like a turbofox. It didn't help that Thundercracker could barely even hear him when he stopped projecting, and had to lean in to even hear Stabilizer. "The boy will make a full recovery."

Stabilizer stared for quite a while into Thundercracker's optics. Thundercracker felt trapped. He couldn't look away, and Stabilizer's optics held dark threats if Thundercracker so much as twitched out of line. Finally, after an extended moment of silence, Stabilizer turned his gaze to Skywarp, and Thundercracker slumped gratefully into his seat. Stabilizer didn't hold Skywarp's gaze nearly as long as he had Thundercracker's, but then, it was hard to intimidate a young mech with only his optics when the mech couldn't read the threats issued from them.

"I wish to know," the doctor said, speaking slowly to ensure they caught his every word, "How it is that two unattached seekers managed to find Starscream when the entire academy's staff couldn't find him for nearly three days."

Thundercracker shot a look at Skywarp. Stabilizer seemed angry, enraged even, but for the life of him Thundercracker couldn't figure out _why_. Thundercracker didn't know why he looked at Skywarp for answers, because the burly mech was oblivious as ever.

"Thundercracker found him," Skywarp said bluntly, and Thundercracker winced. If Stabilizer was pissed, Thundercracker didn't want to be the center of his focus.

Slowly, very slowly, Stabilizer turned his head towards Thundercracker, his eyes arctic. "Thundercracker?" he prompted, inviting him to speak.

Thundercracker shifted, uncomfortable. He knew he had to tell Stabilizer something, but he didn't know _what_. "Well…today was the first I'd heard about Starscream being missing."

"I fail to see how that's likely," Stabilizer said, his voice tight and clipped, "unless you were living in a hole in the ground."

"He doesn't," Skywarp jumped in. "He just doesn't leave his room. 'Cept at mealtimes."

Both Thundercracker and Stabilizor turned to look at Skywarp. "How - " Thundercracker began.

"You know this for a fact?" Stabilizer interrupted, not enjoying that Thundercracker was jumping on his territory by attempting to ask a question.

Skywarp shrugged. "I mean…yeah. Nobody really sees him around. I've asked. I only see him at dinner when he eats with me sometimes."

Thundercracker sat back in his chair, bemused. Skywarp had been asking about him? He wasn't at all sure how to feel about that. Flattered, guilty, weirded out certainly.

"It would seem," Stabilizer began, snapping Thundercracker out of his musings, "that your friend here wishes to protect you by validating your story. It would appear I must accept it as truth until I can verify it further." He gestured widely. "Please continue."

Thundercracker took a minute to collect himself. "Right…so I only just found out he was missing. And I…well, I hadn't seen him for days. But the last time I _did_ see him, I…um…I said some…some things that…"

"You bullied him," Stabilizer said, not willing to wait for Thundercracker to manage to say it in a more delicate way.

"No!" Thundercracker protested, hating the kernel of guilt that took root in his chest. "I just…I was angry, and I said something that…um…that I shouldn't have." Thundercracker hung his head. "I avoided him after that. He's…he's not nice. And I just don't like yelling at people."

Stabilizer's lips thinned as though he didn't quite believe this. "So you're just a nice guy, I take it?"

"Uh…yeah. He is," Skywarp jumped in again.

Stabilizer turned to Skywarp. "I will address you directly, Skywarp, when I wish to hear from you. It will not happen often," he added with a thin, cruel smile.

"What in the pit is _that_ supposed to mean?" Thundercracker asked, half-rising. The guilt was giving way to indignation.

Stabilizer turned to Thundercracker, clearly unimpressed. "What do you think it means, Thundercracker?"

Thundercracker could feel himself shaking. He was angry, he was exhausted from the flight and the stress of the day, and he did not need any condescending slag from a mech who had no idea what he was talking about. If it hadn't been for Skywarp, Thundercracker would never have been able to find Starscream – the mech might have _died_ if Skywarp hadn't had that map, and if he hadn't warped Starscream back to the compound, there's no telling what kind of damage they could have done to him by trying to move him.

"You don't know what you're saying," Thundercracker snapped. A smarter, less angry part of his mind whispered how much of a _bad idea_ it was to go insulting the guy in charge of addressing his _medical needs_, but Thundercracker ignored it. All he could see was a self-righteous prick. "I think that you think Skywarp's an idiot. Everyone thinks Skywarp's an idiot. And you know what? Yeah, he is." Stabilizer gave Skywarp a smirk that would have made one of Starscream's seem positively warm. Skywarp stared balefully at Thundercracker, his optics wide, hurt.

Thundercracker didn't see any of that though. He was blind, seething, furious. He slammed his palms down on the table, making Stabilizer jump and turn back from Skywarp. Thundercracker opened his mouth, his voice hard. "He's an idiot. He's an idiot, but _he found Starscream_. What did _you_ do, huh? Sit around in your office and, and _insult_ the guys who actually got something done? Without Skywarp, we would've never found Starscream. If it weren't for Warp, Starscream would still be out there, because _you_ can't manage the task of finding _one slagging seeker_."

Stabilizer rose, his wings quivering with anger. "You," he hissed. "Outside. Now." He didn't wait for Thundercracker to comply or retort. In one swift movement, he rounded his desk and grabbed Thundercracker by his upper arm, dragging him to the door. His grip was painful on Thundercracker's plating, and he thought he could hear creaking coming from the appendage.

Almost at the door, Stabilizer seemed to have a second thought and whirled on Skywarp, still holding onto Thundercracker. "And _you_. _Stay_."

He didn't wait to see if Skywarp would listen or not, quickly turned on his heel, yanking Thundercracker along behind him.

It didn't take Thundercracker long to figure out where it was that they were heading. At first, he tried vainly to work himself free, but Stabilizer only gripped his arm that much tighter. Thundercracker bit back a cry of pain; he wouldn't give Stabilizer the satisfaction. "You're _hurting_ me," he said firmly.

"And you are out of line," Stabilizer snapped back.

Thundercracker wanted to spit out something scathing and angry, picturing how differently the scene would look if Starscream were the one being dragged to the Dean's office. Starscream would probably be cursing and spitting and struggling the entire way. Although, with how scrawny the other seeker was, Thundercracker figured Stabilizer would've just ended up snapping Starscream's arm in two the first time he squeezed too hard.

Stabilizer barely even slowed down outside the Dean's door, pausing just long enough to get it open to continue inside. He breezed past the Dean's secretary, who issued thin protests that Freefall was busy.

Stabilizer strode confidently through the Dean's door and all but threw Thundercracker across the room. As it was, Thundercracker lost his balance and dropped to one knee. When he raised his optics, he winced. The head dean must have been away on business, because sitting in his usual chair was Stabilizer's trine-mate, Wingflap. Thundercracker lowered his head, knowing there was no way he was going to get out of this with his armor plating intact.

* * *

Word spread quickly through the school, helped along, no doubt, by the rumors that Stabilizer was subtly planting among the staff, that Thundercracker had been bullying Starscream and Skywarp, and that that was why Starscream had run off. According to some of the wilder stories, Thundercracker had forced Skywarp to help drag Starscream back to the compound, beating Starscream up as they went. As was the case with rumors, they only got worse as they spread around. One version had it that Thundercracker chased Starscream and Skywarp through the air, taking pot-shots at them. Another claimed that he'd tricked Skywarp into beating Starscream up and stayed safely within the protection of the academy. A third said that Skywarp and Thundercracker were taking Starscream out into the wilderness to bury him when they'd been stopped by administration.

Thundercracker, surprisingly, knew all about those rumors. He'd been put in a "hab suite" in the basement of the academy. It had been a storage room at one point, but seekers were an unruly bunch. Administration had found that occasionally seekers needed to be kept in isolation for a few days until they'd be willing to see reason. The storage room had had everything taken out of it and a berth shoved in there.

The door was locked, and there were no windows. It was dim and unpleasant. It was cruel, and usually made seekers miserable enough that they were willing to work out their differences. By the end of their stay, the desperate need to escape the claustrophobic, windowless room overpowered most misbehaviors.

Still, Thundercracker wasn't without visitors. Skywarp was pacing up and down the tiny room, and Thundercracker was sitting on the berth to give Skywarp the room he needed to pace.

"Everyone hates me. Or they don't. And if they don't it's just pity. I mean, more than usual. Like I'm…like I'm gonna break. Before, everybody just thought I was stupid, so they pitied me. Or interfaced with me. Or stole my things. Or interfaced with me and _then_ stole my things." He sounded frustrated. "I don't _like_ pity. I don't like it when people take advantage of me."

Thundercracker's optics flicked up from his datapad to Skywarp in surprise. "People take advantage of you?"

"Yes!" Skywarp said with exasperation. It was clear to Thundercracker that Skywarp hadn't ever gotten to talk to this to anyone before. "They think I'm stupid. You do too, you straight up said it. And, I dunno, maybe I am. But that doesn't mean it's ok for people to be _awful_ to me. That's why I like you and Starscream. You - "

"Whoa whoa whoa," Thundercracker said, interrupting, setting the datapad aside for good. "You mean you actually _like_ Starscream?"

"Uh, yeah," Skywarp replied. He made it sound as if it were self evident.

"By Primus, _why_?" Thundercracker asked. "He's just about the most miserable piece of slag known to seeker kind."

"Then why'd you go out looking for him?" Skywarp asked curiously.

Thundercracker opened his mouth, closed it."I asked you first," he finally said, crossing his arms defensively.

On any other mech, it wouldn't have worked. Thankfully, Skywarp wasn't any other mech.

Skywarp shrugged. "Nobody's nice to me. I mean, you are. And so's everyone at first. People ignore, me TC."

"TC?"

"Yeah, it's…I mean, you don't mind, right? It's just shorter. Easier to say than _Thun-der-cra-cker_." His optics were wide, hopeful, guileless. It was slightly jarring, considering a moment ago, he'd been ranting.

"Skywarp," Thundercracker said gently, "did you think of that all by yourself?"

Skywarp nodded vigorously, clearly quite proud of himself.

Thundercracker had to chuckle at that. "Anyway…you were saying?"

Skywarp blinked. "What was I saying again?"

"You were telling me about why you like Starscream."

"Oh right. Yeah. Okay, well people pretend to like me, and then they don't. You don't do that. Well, I mean you haven't yet." Thundercracker opened his mouth, ready to protest, but Skywarp plowed on, oblivious. "But Starscream? Starscream _says_ he doesn't like me. Right away." Skywarp glanced sheepishly at Thundercracker. "I know it's not good that it makes me happy when he does that, but…it does."

"It's refreshing?" Thundercracker offered.

"Yeah," Skywarp said, nodding again.

"It's okay," Thundercracker assured him. "It's normal for you to feel like that. Especially when you hate being lied to or ignored as much as you do."

"Really?"

"Totally. No one likes getting walked all over. Starscream is the first person who hasn't tried to do that to you. Of course you like him for that." For a little while, they were silent. Finally, Thundercracker got up the nerve to ask what he really wanted to. "So, erm…you've interfaced before?"

"Oh yeah," Skywarp answered easily, like casual interfacing wasn't something that everyone did. Like the thought of it didn't make Thundercracker's fuel tank flip over like everything was going to come rushing back up. "Nobody's ever stuck around for very long after. A couple have come back for seconds, but that's it. I'm just an easy frag," Skywarp said bitterly, kicking his pede aimlessly against the wall. "Too damn dumb to be good for anything else."

"Hey, no," Thundercracker rose from his berth. Hesitantly, he put a servo on Skywarp's shoulder. "You are _not_ 'too dumb for anything else'. Don't forget that without that map you found, we would've flown in circles forever to find Starscream."

"I wouldn't have flown in circles!" Skywarp interjected, but Thundercracker ignored him and continued.

"You were the one who smuggled energon cubes out of the cantina. If we'd found Starscream conscious, that could've saved his life. You were the one who warped him back to the academy, which _did _save his life! You were the one who brought me datapads to read so I wouldn't be bored down here by myself - _your_ suggestion, not mine." He squeezed Skywarp's shoulder as Skywarp's faceplates gave off the distinctive hissing sounds of embarrassment as they became warmer than the air around them. "Hey," Thundercracker continued gently. "Hey, look at me." Skywarp did so, shyness and gratitude gleaming in his optics. "Just 'cause it takes you a little longer to grasp what's going on, it doesn't mean you're not one of the best damn mechs I've ever met. You're a good guy, Skywarp. One of the best I've ever met. _Never_ let _anyone_ tell you you're only good for a frag."

Skywarp stared at Thundercracker for a moment, and then grabbed him around his chassis in a tight hug. Thundercracker jerked, startled by both the embrace, and how incredibly _warm_ Skywarp was. The heat of his plating gave Skywarp a sharp, distinctive metallic scent that Thundercracker found he rather liked.

Skywarp suddenly pulled away. "You hum," he pointed out.

Thundercracker smiled in amusement. "Yeah," he said. "My engines run louder than most."

Skywarp put a hand on Thundercracker's chestplate. "Is…are you sick? Maybe you should get that looked at."

Thundercracker laughed. "No, I'm fine, Skywarp. It's always been that way." He smirked a little. "Besides, I kinda like it."

Skywarp grinned at him. "Then so do I."

For some reason, that simple declaration warmed Thundercracker's spark.

Thundercracker's internal clock pinged, a reminder that he'd set up earlier. He sighed. "Hey Skywarp?"

"Yeah?"

"It's almost time for me to get my evening energon cube."

"Oh." Skywarp sounded crushed. His face had the saddest, most disappointed look Thundercracker had ever seen on another mech. "Can I hang out with you for a little longer? Nobody else wants to talk to me."

Thundercracker sighed. Damn, but that face made it hard to say no. "Look, Skywarp, I'd love for you to stay here and hang out with me," he said. He saw Skywarp's face start to brighten a little in a smile and he held a hand up. "_But_ if they catch you down here with me, you'd be in a ton of trouble. And I don't want that to happen."

Skywarp crossed his arms and scowled. "I don't see why you get to be in trouble and I have to get everybody's pity," he grumbled.

Thundercracker chuckled. "I'd take pity over trouble any day," Thundercracker admitted.

Skywarp produced something from his subspace pocket. "Here." He tossed a datapad over to Thundercracker, who caught it easily.

Thundercracker turned it over, examining it. "What is this?" he asked, turning to look at Skywarp.

Skywarp smirked. "Found it in Stabilizer's desk when he took you to the Dean. Thought you'd enjoy it." With that enigmatic statement, Skywarp was gone with a _vop_ as displaced air rushed in to fill the space he'd just vacated.

Thundercracker knew he should just stash the thing until after he'd gotten his meal, but he was curious. He booted it up and scanned the contents. He did a double take. Quickly, he opened one of the entries and scanned it to make sure he wasn't losing his mind.

It was Stabilizer's personal datapad, where he kept entries detailing his day. _And Skywarp had had the nerve to steal it._

With a laugh, Thundercracker turned it off and stashed it in his subspace pocket, along with the other contraband datapads that Skywarp had brought him. He settled down to wait for Stabilizer's goons to bring him his energon, a feeling of mischievous glee lightening his spark.

He didn't have long to wait. Instead of just the usual surly pointless nurse's assistant, however, a group of important-looking mechs clustered into the cramped space. At the head of them was the Dean, a look of bland disinterest locked on his faceplate. He fixed Thundercracker with cold eyes.

Thundercracker sat up on his berth. "Forgive me for not standing," he said, trying to remain respectful. "There's not going to be enough room for everyone to be in here if I stand up too."

"Insolence and insubordination," Wingflap muttered, jotting something down on a large datapad he had wedged in the crook of his elbow.

Thundercracker resisted the urge to glare at the Dean's assistant, at the idiotic mech who had thrown him in the cell without waiting to hear Thundercracker's side of the story. It wouldn't help Thundercracker's case if he casually insulted the Dean's assistant when he was already in hot water. The fact that Stabilizer was Wingflap's trine-mate didn't exactly help Thundercracker with the whole not glaring thing, though.

"It's not insolence or insubordination," Thundercracker protested.

"Backtalk," Wingtalk muttered, scribbling again.

Thundercracker began to say something more, but the Dean of the academy, Freefall, gave him a sharp look. "Thundercracker, you are already facing very serious charges," Freefall said quietly. "You don't need to make it worse for yourself."

The quiet tone of voice that Freefall had was not like Stabilizer's. Freefall's was calm and rational, and held no promises of a temper waiting to explode. Thundercracker relaxed a little, knowing that someone as reasonable as Freefall would surely listen to what he had to say, instead of jumping to conclusions like everyone else. He had to, didn't he?

Freefall clasped his servos before himself and shifted his pedes into a wider base to make standing more comfortable. "Stabilizer and Wingflap inform me that you 'found' Starscream rather quickly. How did you manage to do that when after three days of searching, none of the authorities could do so?" There was no accusation in that question, only bland curiousity. Freefall even tilted his head to the side slightly in that way that Skywarp did when he was confused about something. Thundercracker didn't like that head tilt on Freefall – it felt false, forced, like he was just doing it to portray curiosity, and that he didn't actually care.

"Well the authorities weren't looking very hard if they couldn't find him," Thundercracker said. "I mean, it only took Skywarp 'n me about three and a half hours to find him. It took your guys, what, three days? Where were you even looking?"

Freefall's lipplates twitched. "Sarcasm will not earn you any sympathy, Thundercracker," he said moving to stand beside the berth.

"I…sir, I meant no disrespect," Thundercracker said hurriedly. He hadn't, either. He didn't even think he'd been _using_ sarcasm.

"Of course not," the Dean said, standing comfortably at Thundercracker's side so that Thundercracker had to twist around to look at Freefall properly. It was an awkward position for Thundercracker to hold. "No one ever does." He smiled. It looked cold. Insincere.

Without meaning to, Thundercracker said "Starscream usually does, sir." He winced mentally at that, knowing that was probably the last thing he should have said.

"Indeed? And is that what he did to make you begin your verbal abuse of him?" Freefall's voice wasn't calm and rational, Thundercracker decided; it was just void of any sort of emotion at all, except that clinical curiosity. This mech barely had any spark to him at all.

Thundercracker shifted nervously. "He…well, he did kind of harass me," Thundercracker admitted quietly. "He…sir, he was talking about my trine," Thundercracker added quickly. "My _old_ trine. And, I dunno, I guess he said one thing too many and I just…I lost my temper sir." He hung his head. "I'm not really proud of that."

"Of course you aren't," Freefall said gently. Then he tilted his head towards Thundercracker. "_Now_, that is."

Thundercracker's head snapped up, and he looked at the Dean in horror. Freefall's smile was thin and devoid of any hope for Thundercracker's future.

"You are ashamed of your actions now that you are here in this cell, being reprimanded for them." He began to circle around the berth, and the mechs crowding Thundercracker's tiny cell parted ways for him. Thundercracker kept having to twist awkwardly to keep the Dean in sight. "It's rather easy to be contrite when everyone is telling you that you should be. So do forgive me, Thundercracker, if I am disinclined to believe you" He paused at the foot of Thundercracker's bed and smiled that empty smile. "If you truly felt so terrible for your actions, you should have come to me immediately, my dear boy. Set the record straight."

Thundercracker could feel himself starting to get angry. They were all accusing him of actually _hurting_ Starscream without listening to his side of the story. He struggled to keep his temper in check when he responded – it wouldn't help his case if he exploded at the Dean. "With all due respect sir," he said, working to make his voice docile and cooperative, "I didn't come to you because it didn't seem important at the time."

Freefall nodded once as though in understanding, then continued circling the berth, that bland, knowing smile stuck perpetually on his face.

"Sir," Thundercracker said, struggling to force someone, _anybody_ in the room, to understand. "It was just…just a spat. I was angry after I talked to him, so I just avoided him. I didn't think I was going to have to defend my actions against the entire administrative board!"

"A reasonable explanation," Freefall said, moving languidly across the floor. "One I'd be willing to believe. Except for the fact that we have several eyewitness accounts claiming that you would refuel with him nearly every day."

Thundercracker was taken aback. People had noticed that? People had brought that fact to the Dean? And what did that have to do with anything?

"You seem confused," the Dean said helpfully, "so I will explain. Just so we're all on the same page." The words were innocuous, but there was accusation in his tone, sparkling in those cold optics; Freefall believed him guilty. The Dean perched lightly on the side of Thundercracker's berth, getting into Thundercracker's personal space and smiling thinly at him. "You have been bullying Starscream, Thundercracker. Skywarp as well. When Starscream decided he'd had enough, he called you out on your actions. You argued, and afterwards pretended you were avoiding him. What you were really doing was biding your time until an opportunity presented itself to pay him back for his…insubordination."

"_What?_" Thundercracker demanded, shocked. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Freefall continued as though Thundercracker hadn't interrupted. "Once the administration realized he was missing, a search party was organized for him. For three days, we found nothing. Then you got wind that we were looking, and low and behold, a few hours later and you've not only found him, but you've managed to bring him, conveniently unconscious I might add, straight to our doorstep." Freefall smiled reassuringly. "It wouldn't be unreasonable to think that your actions were an attempt to work your way into our good graces. You've been living off of our generosity for quite some time now, Thundercracker. It stands to reason that you'd find some way to turn this to your advantage." Freefall interlaced his servos and rested them in his lap. "When Starscream wakes up - and he _will_ wake up despite your efforts - we will hear the truth." He smirked, looking genuinely amused for the first time since he'd entered the room. "I would call them your 'best' efforts, except it doesn't seem like you put any effort in making sure Starscream wouldn't get up and tell on you."

Freefall got back onto his pedes, looking austere and regal. Behind him, most of the mechs had somber expressions, except for Wingflap, who was sporting a rather nasty and vindictive smirk.

"Based on your actions, we are no longer willing to accommodate you in the Academy. When Starscream regains consciousness, he will testify against you, and you will be taken into custody of the Vosian authorities. Until then you will be kept here, in this room, without visitors." The lifeless smile returned to his faceplates. "Hopefully it isn't too much of an inconvenience for you."

With that, Freefall and his entourage swept out of the room like an ill wind, and Thundercracker was left alone in a cold, dark cell with the shock of the accusations that he'd emotionally abused another mech, and the unspoken promise that Freefall would do all he could to make Thundercracker's few remaining days of freedom as miserable as possible.

* * *

When Skywarp next materialized in Thundercracker's room, the blue mech was pacing frantically across the room, and Thundercracker nearly crashed into the shorter mech.

Skywarp grabbed Thundercracker's shoulders to help steady him. "Whoa. You alright there?" he asked.

"No," Thundercracker spat, feeling static creeping into his vocalizer. When Skywarp seemed startled and hurt at the harsh tone of Thundercracker's voice, Thundercracker sighed. He waved toward the berth. "Have a seat. I can't pace when you're standing in my way."

Skywarp complied, cautiously climbing onto the berth while still keeping Thundercracker in his line of sight. "So…why _are_ you pacing?"

Thundercracker vented violently. "It's that damn Freefall," Thundercracker said. Anger and terror were warring equally inside of his spark. He tried to focus on the anger, because it was the only thing keeping him from having a mental breakdown. "He's telling everyone that it's _my_ fault that Starscream is in the state he is."

Skywarp nodded, pushing his shoulder blades together in a shrug. "Yeah. I told you that already."

"No, you told me that's what everyone _else_ was saying," Thundercracker said, unable to keep the aggravation out of his voice. "The Dean of the Seeker Academy on Vos is going to give me up to the _police_ because he believes that what everyone else says is true!"

"What?" Skywarp asked, and this time there was incredulity in his voice. "_What?_ When?" He rose halfway out out of the berth, concern on his faceplates.

Thundercracker pushed him back lightly. "As soon as Starscream wakes up," he answered. "He spoon fed me some slag about how they're going to 'hear Starscream's side' before they ship me off to a more secure cell, but how much do you want to bet they're actually going to listen to him? Or that he'll even tell them the truth?" He continued to pace. "_Primus_, this is so _stupid_. Nobody even cares to ask me what's going on!"

Skywarp reached out a hand and put it on Thundercracker's shoulder, effectively stopping the tall mech in his tracks with a firm bit of pressure. "So, if Starscream wakes up, you go to jail."

"More or less," Thundercracker said with exasperation. "Why?"

"Well what if he doesn't wake up?"

Thundercracker rolled his optics. "I don't know, Skywarp. If it takes too long, they'll probably just send me there anyway." He continued to pace. "Oh, and it'd means he'd probably be dead, and that the reason he'd gotten himself killed was because of the awful things I'd said to him last time I saw him. So between a future of crippling guilt and never getting to see the sky again, versus never getting to see the sky again but remaining relatively guilt-free, I'm fragged either way."

Skywarp deflated a little, but quickly perked back up. "What if I warp you out of here?"

Thundercracker sighed. "Then they'd set the authorities on both of us. Skywarp, I'm not dragging you into this mess any more than you already are."

Thundercracker paused, thinking. Something dawned on him. He stopped pacing and turned to face the other mech. "Skywarp," he said slowly. "When you said 'What if he doesn't wake up', did you…was that a _suggestion_?"

Skywarp vented hard in frustration. "I'm just trying to help. If him dying is most helpful - "

"It's not," Thundercracker told him, appalled. "Don't suggest that again. It's not gonna help us here."

"Okay," Skywarp said, all too docile, as if he hadn't just offered to _kill somebody_. He took Thundercracker's rebuke in stride. "Then what are we going to do?"

"_We_ are going to do nothing," Thundercracker said, his voice harsh from surprise. "I am going to sit here and wait until Starscream wakes up. _You_ are going to keep going to class."

Skywarp looked as small as Starscream in that moment. Thundercracker took a second to compose himself. "Look, Skywarp, if you really want to help…keep coming down here. I'll help you with homework if you like, or - or read to you, or…just, I don't know. Find reasons to come see me." He rubbed a servo across his faceplates. "It keeps me from going crazy."

"Sure thing, TC," Skywarp said, brightening. He bounced up from the berth and hugged Thundercracker, happy to be of use. Thundercracker returned the hug, once again marveling at how warm Skywarp ran. The physical contact made him feel worlds better.

When Skywarp released him, Thundercracker squeezed his shoulder. "Thank you, Skywarp, for helping me out, but…but I need to be alone for a little while. Is that okay? Can you leave me alone? Just for a little while, not forever. I, um…I just need some time to get myself in order."

Skywarp nodded. "Yeah. Course." He smiled and took a step back from Thundercracker.

"Come back down after curfew," Thundercracker suggested. "Nobody'll notice you're gone."

Skywarp nodded. "You're smart, TC. Yeah, I'll do that." And with a _vomp_ sound, he disappeared, and Thundercracker was alone again, his worry echoing in the tiny room.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - Refuge for Nerds**

* * *

_**A.N. -**_In this fic, the legal adult age for _most_ Cybertronians is 50 years old. On Vos, a mech at the age of 30 is considered a legal adult within the confines of the city. Sort of like how in the USA, the legal age of adulthood is 18, but various states have lower ages of consent.

* * *

Thundercracker woke to the sound of yelling.

At first he wasn't sure what the sound was – it just sounded like a dull whine. Thundercracker slipped off of his berth and went to the door of the storage room to stick his audial fin on one of the seams to hear better.

After a few moments, he managed to make out what was being said.

"…the useless, glitchbrained, dimmed processor ideas, _this_ is the best you can come up with? You stuck him in the fragging _basement_? He can't tell his helm from his exhaust port, but you know the last time I checked it didn't warrant him being locked in a cell. Where is he? Is this the right door? Don't touch me, I didn't say you could touch me!"

There was the sound of another mech trying to get a word in edgewise, but an angry voice cut that sound off almost immediately.

"I swear by Primus, if the next sounds out of your lipplates are patronizing, I will wield them together in your sleep. You're all utterly pathetic, can't you morons do anything right? Oh for spark's sake, stop _hovering_. Did Stabilizer release me or not?"

"H-h-he didn't - "

"Well he would have if he wasn't a complete _idiot_. Where did you stash him, anyway? The utility closet?" The voice was sarcastic, and more than slightly annoyed.

There was silence as the sound of advancing pedes came to a halt outside of his door. Thundercracker moved back towards his berth so he wouldn't be run over when Starscream swept through the door.

"YOU STUCK HIM IN THE UTILITY CLOSET?"

There was some stuttering as the door slowly slid open to reveal two seekers. Starscream strutted into the room like he was on a catwalk, and not in a dark dank cell. Starscream made it to the middle of the room before he spun on his heel to glare at the shivering member of the nursing staff that had brought him down. In the back of his processor, Thundercracker was impressed that a legal dependent of the state could so thoroughly intimidate a veteran member of the medical staff, who prided themselves on having seen it all.

"I revise what I said earlier: You're _worse_ than pathetic. I've wiped slag from the bottom of my thrusters more impressive than you!" He spun back around to face Thundercracker and flicked a hand dismissively at the nurse. "You're no longer needed here, and you're _certainly_ not wanted. Run along home to Stabilizer and tell him what a naughty little patient I am. Maybe he'll actually have the ball bearings to _do_ something about it for the first time in decades."

Amazingly, the nurse did _exactly_ what he was told and backed out of the room, closing the door. As soon as they heard the magnetic click, Starscream's lipplates twitched upwards in a thin, sardonic smile.

"Do you mind if I use your berth?" Starscream asked. "I just woke up from being in a medically induced coma. Processor damage, you know. I'm still a _tiny_ bit groggy."

"Uh…yeah. Go ahead." Thundercracker moved aside so that Starscream could easily get to the berth from the door.

"_So_ kind," Starscream said, not bothering to look at Thundercracker as he brushed past him.

Starscream settled easily onto the berth, lounging on it like it was his own. He crossed his legs and his servos, laying them easily on his midriff. He had himself propped up so that he could comfortably meet Thundercracker's optics and talk to him. Lying like that on the berth, Starscream looked sleek and graceful. Thundercracker felt bulky and looming by comparison, more so than usual. He leaned up against the wall and crossed his arms and tried not to look like a brute.

"So, Thundercracker," Starscream said, smiling that mocking smile of his. "How did you find me? Oh - and this is the question that I'm really interested in - why the _hell_ did you come looking for me?"

Thundercracker scowled. This ungrateful friendless glitch. "Yeah. Sorry I saved your pit-bound life."

Starscream rolled his optics overly dramatically. "Yes, you're _such_ a decent person. Frankly, I don't care about how _decent_ you are. I care about _why_." Starscream's expression was dark. "I want to know _why_ you risked your life for me. I want to know _why_ you put me into your debt."

"'Your _debt_?'" Thundercracker pushed off the wall and took a step towards the berth. "How does saving your life put you in my debt?"

"Hel_lo_," Starscream said, sitting up and bracing himself with his hands. "Don't you know _anything_ about _anything_? Someone saves your life, you're in their debt. It's called a life-debt for a reason, you moronic winged trashcompacter."

"Right, and you expect me to believe that _you_ are going to honor something like a life-debt."

"Oh, right," Starscream said snarling. "Horrid, insufferable, bastard Starscream can't _possibly_ have a shred of honor in his shriveled, broken little spark. He has _no_ idea what it means to be a_ decent_ mech like perfect, wholesome Thundercracker over here."

"I never said I was - "

"Oh don't start with me, you pretentious looming oaf." Starscream sat up fully and glared up into Thundercracker's optics. "The docs, useless though they are, _do_ know when someone's going to die. They told me if you hadn't found me, I would have died. Ergo," Starscream said, his tone indicating that Thundercracker was being a bigger idiot than usual, "you saved my life. I don't want you holding it over my head, so I want to know _why_ you did it."

Thundercracker scoffed. "Right, cause I want you to be hanging around me all day, whining in my face!"

"So tell me why," Starscream said, his tone turning disgustingly sweet. "And I will get _out_ of your face. Forever, preferably. After this fiasco you caused - "

"_I_ caused - ?"

" – I don't _really_ want to be spending a whole lotta time around you."

"I'm sorry," Thundercracker said, not sounding at all contrite, taking a step closer to the berth, "but I fail to see how you running off and bashing your processor in is _my_ fault."

Starscream crossed his arms across his chassis, a smirk gracing his faceplates. "Well you obviously _think_ you did something. Because your face when I first said it was your fault…do you wanna see the recording?" Starscream's smirk grew as he projected the image against the wall, nearly blinding Thundercracker as he shined the light straight into his optics.

Instinctively, Thundercracker brought his servos up and took a few steps backwards. "_No_, I don't want to see my face. Primus, what is _wrong_ with you?"

"You sure?" Starscream asked, still grinning widely, a dark sparkle to his optics. "It's comedy _gold_."

It was hard for Thundercracker to glare through the blinding light, but he managed as best he could.

"Oh you're no fun at all," Starscream mock pouted, shutting off his projector. He crossed his legs and placed his servos delicately across his knees. "Anyway, it's not about what's wrong with _me_, but what's wrong with _you_. I mean, what kind of dolt goes off _alone_ into the wild lands beyond Vos to find someone they don't even _like_?" He casually examined the tips of his servos. "Unless, of course, they _want_ something. But you're far too _noble_ for that sort of thing, right TC?"

Thundercracker crossed his arms again. "I dunno, _Screamer_. I'm not too far away from punching you in your stupid face. How noble of a mech does that make me, exactly?"

Starscream propelled himself off the berth and right into Thundercracker's face. Or at least, he _would've_ had he been tall enough. He did his best though.

Starscream jabbed a finger into Thundercracker's chest, punctuating each word. "_Don't_. _Call me. Screamer."_

Thundercracker uncrossed his arms. "But it's just so _appropriate_. Do you have the faintest idea how _grating_ your voice is, _Screamer_? I mean the decibels you achieve with that voice box of yours…did you take it out and chew on it as a sparkling? Cause that's the only explanation that _I_ can - "

Starscream shoved Thundercracker. He was strong despite his size, and Thundercracker actually had to take a step back to keep his balance.

"I don't know who you think you are," Starscream hissed at him. "But we are _not_ friends. Just because you've eaten a few dinners with me, saved my life? It doesn't mean you get to start being cute with me. Don't _ever_ call me that to my face, you graceless moron."

"I never said I wanted to _be_ your friend," Thundercracker snapped back. "You're awful and bitter and miserable, and the _only_ reason I sat with you all those times was because your foul presence drove everyone else off."

Starscream sneered. "I've heard all this before, blue-boy, and I gotta say, that was a lot tamer than what I'm used to hearing. You're starting to bore me."

Thundercracker shifted so his base was wider, which made him feel more grounded, better able to withstand Starscream's biting comments. "You wanna know why I saved you? That'll get you out of my face? Okay, fine: The administration is slag; they couldn't find their own afterburners if they were welded to their faceplates. I knew they weren't going to find you. They thought you were hiding out in the _city_ to sulk."

Starscream scoffed. He backed out of Thundercracker's space somewhat, and crossed his arms. "So tell me, _genius_, how did you know that was a slag-tastic idea?"

Thundercracker rolled his optics. "You _hate_ people – why would you go to the one place where you can't get away from people?"

The slight mech examined the tips of his servos again. "And how did you know I wanted space? Were you spying on me?" His wicked optics flicked up to meet Thundercracker's, cruel and mocking. "Do I have a _stalker_, Thundercracker? I don't know if I should be flattered, or - "

"I don't give a damn about your life!" Thundercracker exploded at him.

"Then why did you save it?" Starscream countered, matching Thundercracker's volume, cutting off the rest of what would have been a rant.

"Because I felt guilty!"

The energon slowly drained from Thundercracker's helm as he saw the self-satisfied smile on Starscream's lipplates, and realized he'd just made a huge mistake.

"No need to worry yourself, Backburn," Starscream said blithely, and it took Thundercracker a moment to realize that Starscream wasn't talking to him. While they'd been shouting, the nurse had come inside to see what all the angry yelling was about. "You can take me back to the hospital dorm. I'm sure Stabilizer's about to pop a spark fragment because his processor-damaged patient is out and about."

Starscream strolled out of the room, and waved to Thundercracker casually over his shoulder without looking back. "Thanks for the chat, _TC_. It was ever so pleasant, let's do it again sometime."

The nurse gave Thundercracker an odd look before he followed Starscream. At a respectable distance, of course.

* * *

Once more, Freefall was standing in Thundercracker's cell, arms casually clasped behind his back, Thundercracker sitting on his berth to make room for all the henchmen taking up space. The only difference was that instead of Freefall coldly and casually accusing Thundercracker of tormenting a mech, Wingflap was standing front and center, fidgeting under the frosty gaze of Freefall, and addressing Thundercracker.

"So…to sum up…um…we are discharging you from…from custody."

Thundercracker only stared at Wingflap, his face carefully blank. Wingflap had been the one to ultimately put him in the cell; he refused to do anything that might make the discharge process easier on the guy.

"Um…er…do you…do you understand what I'm telling you, Thundercracker?"

Thundercracker's expression yielded nothing. "So what you're saying is that you were wrong, I was right, and you put me in this Primus-forsaken pit for absolutely no reason. Do I have that about right?"

"Uh…y-yes."

"So you admit that you were just a little hasty in jumping to conclusions about my actions based on circumstantial evidence and 'testimonies' that you basically wrote yourself?"

Wingflap didn't bother answering.

"Wingflap," Freefall said quietly. His tone was neutral, expressionless, but everyone in the room who'd spent any amount of time with him could read the warning in that single word.

"I…yes." Wingflap looked incredibly small.

"And I'm guessing that you and the school don't want me to make a big deal out of all this? To keep it quietly to myself like a good little seeker?"

"That would be…that would be preferable, yes."

Thundercracker examined his servos nonchalantly. It was the same gesture he'd seen Starscream use, and he had no qualms about stealing it in that moment. "So what I'm hearing is that you screwed up and locked me in a cage. Now you want me to keep my mouth shut and just let every other mech in this institution keep hating me, which, by the way, is your fault to begin with. You want all the nasty little things you've done to me to magically disappear, and in return you'll allow me to keep living here comfortably, which is my legal right to do regardless until a full twenty years have passed since my graduation. As I still have nearly a decade left, legally, you have no leverage."

Wingflap's face was struck with horror, and he looked back at Freefall like he thought he was going to die. It was pretty funny, for the first two seconds Thundercracker didn't look at Freefall. Freefall just smiled placidly at Wingflap, and Thundercracker knew the assistant was a hair's breadth away from spontaneously leaking oil.

"So. Do I need to sign a non-disclosure document, or are you just gonna trust my word on this one?"

Freefall's head cocked slightly to the side, but that was the only sign of surprise that he gave. Wingflap just gaped like the idiot Thundercracker knew him to be.

"You…you're actually gonna sign it? Really?"

Thundercracker shrugged. "Yeah." His optics flicked over to Freefall. Freefall met his optics and gave Thundercracker a tiny, knowing smile.

"I'm pleased you're willing to be so…forgiving, Thundercracker." Unlike Wingflap, Freefall's pauses weren't terrified, but calculated for effect. "Wingflap will get you the necessary form from my desk." Freefall turned that smile on Wingflap, and the Dean's assistant swallowed. Thundercracker did not envy Wingflap's position.

Wingflap hesitated, but he met Freefall's calmly smiling face and almost bolted out of the room. Freefall turned his attention back to Thundercracker. "So then. What shall we chat about while we wait?"

Thundercracker wished he could be anywhere else but there, pinned under the cool gaze of Freefall.

* * *

"You're out!"

Skywarp bounded up to Thundercracker and wrapped him in the most strut-bending hug Thundercracker had ever had.

"Yeah, but you're gonna put me in the ER if you're not careful with this hug," Thundercracker told Skywarp with a laugh.

The first thing Thundercracker had done when he'd gotten out of his jail cell was to go straight to his room. When he realized how boring and depressing it was that his first night out of captivity was going to be spent alone, Thundercracker went looking for Skywarp. He'd eventually found him holed up in a remote corner of the library, of all places.

The mech in question released Thundercracker from his tight embrace, grinning madly. "Sorry. So why'd they letcha out? Did you tell them they were being stupid?"

"Yeah, loads of times," Thundercracker said with a chuckle. "But no, they let me out cause the Screamer woke up."

Skywarp started fidgeting. "Um…two questions?"

Thundercracker grinned. "Go for it." He walked past his friend to claim the seat Skywarp had jumped out of to greet him.

"Okay I'm gonna ask them both at the same time so I don't forget."

Thundercracker nodded. "Makes sense. Go for it, Warp."

Skywarp was about to speak, but then he started grinning like a lunatic. "Warp…I like it. Short for Skywarp, right? It's funny. Cause, you know, I can - "

"Warp," Thundercracker interrupted with a laugh. "What were your questions?"

"Oh. Um…" He thought about that for a moment. "I forgot. What we were talking about."

"They let me out," Thundercracker said gently, "because Starscream woke up." It was amazing how much patience he had for Skywarp now that he wasn't confined to his cell.

"Oh yeah!" Skywarp said, bouncing around the nook made by several conveniently positioned bookcases. He was clearly too excited to sit still. "Wasn't Starscream waking up supposed to be a bad thing?"

"Only if it meant me going to jail," Thundercracker said, folding his hands between his knees. "But since Screamer told them what happened, they were willing to believe me. I didn't _actually_ expect him to tell the truth, to be perfectly honest. I figured he was gonna let me corrode in my own coolant."

"Don't call him that."

Thundercracker looked up at the still pacing Skywarp. "Huh? Don't call who what now?"

"Starscream? He hates it when people call him 'Screamer'." Skywarp looked worriedly at Thundercracker. "If he hears you - "

"Oh that." Thundercracker flapped a servo at him dismissively. "Energon through the fuel pumps." When Skywarp stopped moving and cocked his helm to the side, Thundercracker sighed, knowing he'd have to explain further. "When I was in my cell, Starscream came to visit me. Some words were exchanged…to be honest with you, Skywarp, most of them weren't nice."

Skywarp laughed. "Well, it _is_ Starscream."

Thundercracker chuckled too. "Fair point. Anyway, I called him that to his face. He really lost his temper."

Skywarp cocked his head and looked Thundercracker up and down. "Huh."

"What?" Thundercracker asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

"Nuthin," Skywarp said, pacing around again, straightening things on the bookshelves compulsively. "It's just that the last time someone did that to Starscream, he threw the mech out a window." Skywarp glanced back at Thundercracker from over his shoulder and shrugged. "I guess he must like ya."

Thundercracker stared at Skywarp with disbelief. "You're _kidding_ me."

"Nope. Saw it with my own optics." He started straightening a pile of datapads on one of the tables, a stack that already looked respectably stacked to Thundercracker. At least, they were all in a vaguely pile-esque shape instead of spread haphazardly on the floor. That was usually Thundercracker's sole criteria for neatness. "Ramjet's never really been good in the head since."

"Wow," Thundercracker said, leaning back. "And here I thought everyone avoided Starscream because of his _glowing_ personality."

Skywarp turned back to look at Thundercracker, a look of consternation on his face. "Starscream's personality doesn't glow. It - it's not a light fixture, it's a _personality_, I don't think personalities can gl-"

"No, I know," Thundercracker interrupted. He smiled reassuringly. "I was joking, it was sarcasm."

"Oh." A look of acute embarrassment stole over Skywarp's face, and he turned away from Thundercracker.

Thundercracker rose and clapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, you wanna help me celebrate being free? I was thinking we could go out for a fly. And if we use one of those amazing maps you've filched, we can probably push the safe speed-limit for untrined mechs."

"I didn't _filch - _"

"Yeah yeah yeah, okay, keep up the charade. I won't give you away. So you in or out, Warp?"

Skywarp seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then he grinned broadly. "I really like it when you call me Warp," he told Thundercracker.

Thundercracker returned his grin. "Then I'll do it more often. So do you wanna catch some air or what?"

Skywarp nodded vigorously, and Thundercracker steered the over-energetic mech out of the library and towards the hangar.

As they moved down the hallways, Thundercracker was apprehensive. Because of his deal with the administration, none of the student body had been informed that he was innocent of all charges. Thundercracker braced himself, expecting harassment, but strangely, no one approached either him or Skywarp. Even when they passed a tight group of whispering mechs, the group didn't spare them so much as a glance. As Skywarp and Thundercracker breezed by them, Thundercracker caught a bit of their tense, whispered conversation:

"…fighting on Tarn. That's why they've started charging for energon in the cafeteria."

"Do you think they'll attack Vos? Attack _us_?"

And that was as much as Thundercracker heard before he and Skywarp passed out of audial range.

* * *

"Well…isn't this quant?"

Thundercracker looked up from his datapad. He was seated on the floor, his legs crossed, a datapad on the discourses of diplomacy on his lap, and several more on sociology and psychology spread around him, a cube of energon at his elbow. Similarly, Skywarp was curled up on a chair with a neat stack of datapads on the desk next to him, a tidy little pyramid of empty cubes at his pedes, and several more rows of energon sitting on the desk near the unread datapads. At the sound of that oh so distinctive voice, Skywarp looked up as well.

Starscream was leaning nonchalantly in the doorway of Thundercracker's hab suite, arms and legs casually crossed. Once again, Thundercracker found himself jealously frustrated at how Starscream's lithe frame made every move he made seem elegant.

With a sigh, Thundercracker asked "What do you want, Starscream?"

"From you?" Starscream snorted. "There is _nothing_ you have that I could want."

"Then why are you here?" Thundercracker asked, feeling that grating voice shortening his otherwise admirable patience.

Starscream smirked. "I can't come to laugh at a couple of rejects when I feel like it?"

Thundercracker turned back to his datapad, unwilling to play Starscream's little games. "Fine. Whatever. Don't let the door hit you on your way out when you've finished."

There was a period of silence, in which both Skywarp and Thundercracker continued reading, and Starscream continued standing. Finally,"What are you reading?" Starscream demanded, and Thundercracker had to work hard to keep the smirk off his face. He'd found Starscream's weak point, then – the aft hated being ignored.

"Alpha Trion's treatise on diplomacy," he said, still refusing to look at Starscream. He'd turned most of his processor power towards reading again, and couldn't be bothered to deal with the other mech.

"Ugh, _boring_," Starscream complained. He moved into the room and snatched a datapad off the top of Skywarp's pile. Skywarp had turned back to reading before Thundercracker had, devouring whatever it was he was looking at, nearly constantly sipping on his energon cube as he did so. Starscream flicked on the datapad he'd snagged, scanned it quickly, then made a "tch" sound before tossing it carelessly back onto the desk. He grabbed one of Skywarp's energon cubes and absently started sipping it. Skywarp, without looking, reached over and replaced the datapad at the top of the pile.

Almost aimlessly, Starscream sauntered over to Thundercracker and leaned down to read over his shoulder. In the processes, he accidentally dripped some energon onto Thundercracker. With an annoyed sigh, Thundercracker got up to retrieve a rag from Skywarp's wash racks to clean up the spill. When he returned, Starscream was flicking through the datapad that Thundercracker had abandoned, a look of mild boredom on his face.

"I don't suppose you saved my place?" Thundercracker asked, doubting very much that Starscream had done so.

Starscream ignored the question. "You know, I always found this old crone dry as hell," Starscream said. "I don't know how you can read his drivel."

"Well," Thundercracker said, stooping down to mop up the little drops of energon that had fallen on the floor. "He is prone to ramble."

"'Prone to ramble' is putting it mildly," Starscream replied hotly.

"But," Thundercracker said, quickly talking over Starscream to stop him from going off on a tangent, "I find his examination of alien diplomacy to be fascinating."

An odd look came over Starscream's face. "You've read his dialogues on the connections between the biological and cultural expressions of various alien species, and the inherent difficulties that thus evolve when we attempt to deal with them diplomatically?"

All this came out very quickly, startling Thundercracker somewhat. "Uh…yeah. Have…have _you_ read it, Starscream?" he asked, more than a little incredulously.

Starscream scoffed, as though that answer should be obvious. "The bits about diplomacy are nothing but the mindless drivel of a senile old man, but for a primarily sociology-focused philosopher, he has a remarkable grasp of xenobiology."

"But it's that xenobiological understanding that allows for a diplomat to adequately and appropriately interact with an alien species _withou_t unintentionally causing an intergalactic war! It's imperative for the diplomat- "

"Oh please, you're seriously telling me that talking _to_ a disgustingly oozy organic without spurting oil all over them is more interesting than _how_ the disgusting oozy organic body functions?"

"Well in this instance, I'm gonna say yeah. Yeah it is." Thundercracker snatched his datapad out of Starscream's servos.

"You're a miserably naïve sap, aren't you? We have almost no liquid materials within our frames – we are all but pure solids. Organics are a mix of all manner of elemental states - and that's not even the most interesting bit of organic study. Reproductive cycles for instance are varied and fascin - "

"Why are you here, Starscream?" Thundercracker asked abruptly, sitting and scanning through the datapad to find his place again.

Starscream scowled, annoyed at the interruption. "What, I'm not allowed to visit half-wits when I get too bored?"

"Not really your style," Thundercracker replied absently, finding where he'd left off in the treatise. "You hate people."

"Yeah," Starscream agreed, sneering down at Thundercracker. "Especially losers like you."

"TC isn't a loser," Skywarp suddenly piped in. He'd turned off his datapad and everything to better follow the train of the conversation.

Starscream turned to Skywarp and scoffed. "Well look who's talking," he sneered. "You're the _king_ of all losers."

"Maybe," Skywarp said, calm and neutral as ever. "But Thundercracker saved your life. If he's a loser, then he's the loser that saved your life, and what does that make you?"

"Loser's luck," Starscream snarled, ignoring the question. "He's still a loser." Before Skywarp could retort, Starscream whirled back to Thundercracker. "'TC', huh? Cute. How long's he been calling you that? How come you don't let _me_ call you that?"

"Because, Starscream, as you so pleasantly pointed out to me, we aren't friends."

"Ouch," Starscream said, smirking. He clutched at his chassis. "You _wound_ me, Thundercracker."

"As if you care," Thundercracker shot back, focusing once more on his datapad.

When it was clear that neither of them were going to pay any more attention to Starscream, he gave a frustrated huff. "Are you both seriously just going to sit there and read? Don't you get enough of that in classes?"

Thundercracker raised a hand without looking up from his datapad. "Don't have class, remember?"

"Oh yes, however could we ever forget the great big graduate," Starscream said snidely, adding an overly dramatic bow. He straightened and added "What are you even doing here if you've already graduated. Oh wait, that's right, you _left_ your trine, like the antisocial slag-slug you are!"

Skywarp looked up from his datapad. "You left your trine?"

Thundercracker sighed but refused to look away from his datapad. "Yeah, Skywarp."

"Why?"

"Yeah, Thundercracker," Starscream said with mock sincerity. "How come you left your first trine? Are you just that unlikable?"

Thundercracker sighed. He was finding it easier to ignore Starscream with Skywarp in the room, but he couldn't ignore Skywarp's innocent curiosity. He set the datapad aside. "They, uh…they weren't going anywhere with their lives, Warp."

Starscream moved to sit at Skywarp's pedes. "That means they were no-good deadbeats. Thundercracker leaves people that he doesn't think are good enough for him."

Skywarp turned to look at Thundercracker with uncertainty, his eyes probing.

"No, no that's not what I said," Thundercracker said, quickly reassuring Skywarp and shooting a hot-tempered glare at Starscream.

"Oh don't be so high and mighty, Thundercracker. Just admit that you're no better than the rest of us – you just use 'em and lose 'em like anyone el - "

"They wanted me to spark-bond with them, alright!"

For the first time since he'd known him, Starscream seemed at an utter loss for words. Skywarp looked confused and concerned. Mostly just confused.

Thundercracker took a moment to compose himself before he explained. "I've…never…been intimate with anyone before. And they kept asking me to be. Before I…before I was ready."

There was a moment of silence as Skywarp and Starscream just looked at him. Then Starscream burst out laughing. "You've never _interfaced_?" he blurted out incredulously.

Thundercracker scowled at him. "No, Starscream, I haven't. It's a huge display of intimacy and trust and - "

"No it isn't!" Starscream countered. "It shows you're looking for a good time! There is no 'trust' involved!"

"Temporarily letting someone have access to your spark and your mind for the sake of _pleasure_? That's a _huge_ risk, Starscream. And don't give me slag about safety and protection, because letting someone _use your spark_ is enormously intimate. There is no such thing as casual interface, because there is nothing _casual_ about baring your spark!"

Starscream turned to look up at Skywarp, grinning snidely. "Is it just me, or did that sound rehearsed?"

Thundercracker fumed while Skywarp considered. He turned to look at Thundercracker. "It sounded nice." He smiled.

Starscream scoffed and turned away. "You're useless." He leaned toward Thundercracker, still comfortably at Skywarp's pedes. "A seeker's got needs, Thundercracker. Flight is one of them, and interfacing is another. It's a physiological _fact_."

"I'm not _saying_ I've never wanted to," Thundercracker snipped. "I'm _saying_ that I don't see the point of showing someone what's in your spark if you have no intention of letting them stay there!"

Starscream just gave Thundercracker a pitying look. "You poor, romantic, naïve bastard," he said, shaking his head with a small sigh. "Okay, say that I've accepted your stupid, sappy ideas on _love_ and slag like that, and that I have no problems at all with your ideas on interfacing - which, by the way, I haven't - these were your _trine_-mates. You _honestly_ want me to believe that you couldn't imagine letting them 'stay in your spark', as you put it?"

"That's just it, Starscream," Thundercracker said, resigned to coming clean to these two unlikely confidants, Primus only knew why. "I spent ten years with them. At the start, I really believed I was going to be able to fall in love with them. And then…I didn't."

Starscream raised an optic ridge. "Thundercracker," he said, scooting across the floor to lay a hand on Thundercracker's knee in a mockery of comfort. "Is there something you're not telling us?"

Thundercracker scowled, confused. "Um…no?"

Starscream leaned in companionably. "It's okay, Thundercracker. This is a non-judgmental space. I promise, we won't laugh." His knowing, condescending smile was still firmly in place.

"Uh, Starscream?" Skywarp piped up. "You just _did_ laugh at Thundercracker."

"Shut up," Starscream snapped over his shoulder, but there was no venom in the command. He just continued to smile in that strange manner at Thundercracker.

"Starscream, if you've got something to say, just come straight out and say it."

Starscream squeezed his knee companionably. "Thundercracker, you _know_ that if you're into groundpounders, it won't change the way we view you at _all_."

"Whoa whoa whoa," Thundercracker said, getting quickly to his pedes. "_What_? Where in the pit did you get _that_ idea from?"

Starscream stood too and put a companionable hand on Thundercracker's shoulder. He could no longer keep the laughter out of his voice. "It's okay, Thundercracker; I get it. They're exotic – they're new and shiny and different. I mean, what mech _hasn't_ thought about it, with at least _one_ of them, no matter how traditional they say they are."

Thundercracker pulled away from Starscream. "What, because I couldn't fall in love with my trine-mates, I must have a thing for grounders?"

Starscream shrugged, grinning wickedly. "It's been known to happen. Stabilizer, for instance, if you believe the rumors - "

"They were aft heads," Thundercracker interrupted. "I like wings on my lovers. What I _don't_ are mechs who are lazy, content with being stuck in dead-end jobs, no purpose, no point, no driving forces in their lives, who try to pressure me into interfacing when I'm not ready!"

Starscream stared at Thundercracker for a moment. For one tiny instance, Thundercracker thought he was going to stop being annoying and have an actual moment of honesty with him. But then the scrappy mech rolled his eyes, said, "Oh, you're no fun," before moving over to flop down on Thundercracker's berth. "Oi, Warpy," he said, snapping his servos. Skywarp turned to look at Starscream with wide eyes. "Toss me a datapad, will you? Something _not_ boring."

Skywarp turned to his desk and scanned the stack before carefully pulling out one of them, miraculously managing not to disturb the stack as he did so. He tossed it over to Starscream, and it sailed perfectly into the slight mech's hands. Without a thank-you, Starscream turned it on. Immediately, he snapped "I said _not boring_, are you _deaf_?"

"But it _isn't_ boring!" Skywarp protested. "Astrophysics and space bridge technology are really really cool!"

"Ugh, you're pathetic," Starscream complained. "No, shut up, I'll find one myself!" He stormed over to the desk and started flicking through all the datapads, quickly messing up Skywarp's neat little pile. Skywarp watched sadly as Starscream did so, but did nothing to stop him, clearly fearing Starscream's acerbic tongue.

Finally, Starscream plucked a pad from the now disheveled pile. "These are all awful, but I _suppose_ this one is the least awful." He stormed back over to the berth, the image of a sulking sparkling, and began reading.

When Starscream glanced back up, Thundercracker and Skywarp were both staring at him. "What?" he demanded. "I can't do what you two _losers_ were doing earlier? You're obviously going to be boring, so I might as well entertain my_self_."

Thundercracker looked over at Skywarp, who turned to meet his optics. After a shared moment of questioning, Skywarp shrugged. He straightened the pile once more, then sat back down and continued reading.

Thundercracker shrugged as well. _'If you can't beat them, join them'_. He grabbed his datapad, got comfortable, and settled in for a good read.

* * *

"Hey, how come we always do this in _my_ room?" The thought had randomly dawned on Thundercracker in the middle of reading a case study involving the different socialization patterns of aerial mech races, and he knew it'd bother him forever if he didn't get it out of his system.

"Quiet you imbecile," Starscream growled from Thundercracker's berth, which he had long since claimed as his reading spot, as he always did when coming into anyone's hab suite.

Skywarp glanced up at Thundercracker nervously, then held the datapad over his faceplates. It was obvious that he wasn't reading anymore and that he was just doing it to hide his expression.

"No, seriously," Thundercracker persisted, laying his datapad aside. "Why my room? I mean, you two both have rooms. I don't really want to go to the data libraries any more than either of you, but surely a change in venue once in a while would be _nice_?"

Skywarp continued holding the datapad in front of his face, but Starscream gave an overdramatic sigh and flung his pedes off the berth. "If it will get you to shut up so that I can _read_, then fine, we'll go to _my_ room."

Five minutes later, Skywarp and Thundercracker were standing in Starscream's threshold, stock-still. Skywarp had a look of pure horror on his faceplates. Thundercracker had ceased venting in efforts to quell the contaminant warning pings from his sensors.

Starscream stood knee-deep in _things_, servos on his hips. "You two coming in, or what?"

Skywarp just let out a sound of pained horror, much like a whine. Thundercracker patted Skywarp's shoulder strut. "Just go back to my room, Warp, we'll meet you there."

Barely able to spare a thankful glance at Thundercracker, Skywarp disappeared to the sound of air being displaced.

Starscream blinked a few times to make sure his optics hadn't deceived him. While Thundercracker and Skywarp had come clean about the rescue operation weeks ago, he'd never actually _seen_ Skywarp do his thing before. He recovered quickly, fixing Thundercracker with a glare. "What the pit was that about?" he demanded. "I thought you wanted a change of venue!"

"Yeah, a change in venue," Thundercracker said, incredulity creeping into his voice. "Not a change in sanitation!"

"Go frag yourself, you virginal vapor-trail."

"Starscream, there is _sour energon_ somewhere in this…this mess! Can't your sensors detect that? That's not _safe_, plus it's highly volatile. And is that, is that - _what is that?_" Thundercracker just stared at the mess in wonder. There were datapads strewn everywhere. Chemistry lab equipment, both broken and unbroken, was mixed in among the mess. There were plants - _real, organic plants_ - stuck in various corners, intermixed with unidentifiable metal scraps that looked like they'd come straight from a trash yard. Mud was streaked across the metallic floors, old and layered. "Starscream, do you _live_ in this mess?"

Starscream scoffed. "It's not a mess."

"When was the last time the cleaning mechs came through here?" Thundercracker demanded. He felt sorry for anyone who had to straighten this room up; it looked like a cross between a battlefield and a natural disaster.

"They don't," Starscream snarled. "Once I started living in my own quarters, I told them to frag off. They kept moving all of my things, and I couldn't _find_ anything - "

"-And you _can_ find anything in _this_ mess?" Thundercracker asked in utter disbelief.

Starscream crossed his arms and glared in what Thundercracker was starting to realize was Starscream-speak for "no, but I'm too stubborn and proud to say as much, you [insert clever/rhyming/alliterate insult here]".

Thundercracker vented. Hard. "I'm gonna go ahead and guess that you got into a fight with one of them - "

"N_o_!" Starscream protested, shrill.

" – and they refused to clean until you apologized - "

"That would _never - _"

" – and when Pulley offered to help you out, you insulted him and he left - "

"- full of slag, TC - "

" – and none of the janitorial staff has touched your room since."

Starscream stood there, hands clenched by his sides, wings as flat against his back as they could get in embarrassment and anger. He stormed across the room. He got right in Thundercracker's face, seething. "You think you're so smart, don't you, you pathetic cloud of exhaust fume? Well you know what? I don't feel like letting you into my room anymore. You want a change of venue, go to the data library." He marched out of his room, forcing Thundercracker to back out ahead of him. Starscream slammed his door closed with an angry burst of code. He whirled on his heel, putting his back to Thundercracker. "As for me, _I'm_ going back to your room, if that's not a problem with you, _oh high and mighty one_." With that he stormed off.

Thundercracker stared after him. Finally, after a moment of silence, he shook his head. Unbelievable. The mech was absolutely unbelievable. He trotted down the hallway after Starscream, back to his room and his datapads and his friends.

* * *

_**A.N. -**_I want to thank all of you guys for the favs and follows. And especially for the reviews, because it reminds me of why I dedicated myself to this ridiculous fic and inspires me to write more (it's more than 200 pages now, and the more I think about how much more I have to write the more daunted I get). A HUGE thank-you to my beta, Jideni3, 1) because without them this idea wouldn't have been born and 2) who works very hard to make sure I'm coherent for you guys.

Next update will be Sept 6, and we'll get to see a..._different_ side of Starscream (okay so not actually that different - he's still the turd we all know and love). Until then!


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 - Stash**

* * *

**A/N:** The idiots do some binge drinking in this chapter, which, if you're going to enjoy alcohol, is probably the worst way to go about doing it. Cause, you know, these boys are all about doing things the smart way.

* * *

"Is anybody else hungry?"

"Skywarp, this is like your third energon cube in an hour. Slow down – they're not going anywhere," Thundercracker said from his usual position on the was too engrossed in a textpad to offer one of his usual sharp remarks, but a spark of irritation entered his optics at the sound of Skywarp's voice.

"Yeah, but I'm _hungry_," Skywarp complained.

Thundercracker jerked his head towards his cabinet. "You know where I keep my stash." Ever since energon prices started rising, everyone had a private stash, it seemed.

"I know," Skywarp replied, tapping his fingers against his knee joint. "But I don't _like_ your energon."

"Don't whine," Starscream commanded absently from the berth, ankles crossed delicately in the perfect picture of repose.

"But I don't _like_ your energon," Skywarp repeated quietly.

"Just cause you do it quieter," Starscream growled, "doesn't mean it isn't whining."

Skywarp vented in frustration.

Thundercracker set aside his datapad to give Skywarp his undivided attention. It was clear the purple mech wanted something, and he was going to have a hard time articulating what it was if TC didn't help him. "Why don't you like my energon, Skywarp?"

"And don't whine," Starscream added, swiping a finger lazily across the screen of his datapad.

"It tastes funny, TC. My energon is better."

"Warp," Starscream warned, a threatening tone creeping into his voicebox.

"Oh shut up, Screamer," Thundercracker countered, glancing over to the mech who'd stolen his berth. "He wasn't whining that time. You're just peeved that we're making noise."

Starscream's lipplates grew thin, but he kept his optics on his datapad and continued to read. When Thundercracker turned back to Skywarp, the other mech's wide eyes were fixated on him in wonder. He was always in awe when Thundercracker called the thin mech "Screamer" and managed to _not_ die. Even more so when Thundercracker did it while chastising Starscream.

"Okay, Skywarp. How 'bout we go get you some of your energon then. Will that make you feel better?"

Skywarp suddenly refused to meet his optics and started to fidget uncomfortably.

Thundercracker sighed. "Right. How about _you_ go get some of your energon - and could you bring back some extra? If you don't mind sharing, that is." He offered Skywarp a kind smile. "I'm curious as to what makes your energon better than mine."

Skywarp suddenly perked right up. "Okay, TC." He was suddenly gone.

Starscream, without looking up, asked "What was _that_ all about?"

"What was what all about?" Thundercracker asked, leaning back on his elbows in a more relaxed position on the floor.

"You offered to go with him and then suddenly changed your mind. What gives?" Starscream still hadn't looked up, and indeed, he seemed rather preoccupied with whatever it was he was reading.

"I'm surprised you noticed anything at all, what with that _fascinating_ chemical breakdown of an organic, photosensitive, non-sentient creature under your olfactive receptors."

Starscream just made a vaguely hostile growling sound.

"Well, it's kind of obvious - "

"Not to_ me_ - "

" – but Skywarp gets freaked whenever I suggest the idea of going into his room. I think the mech's got trust issues there."

Starscream snorted. He still hadn't looked up from his datapad. "Skwarp's too trusting to have trust issues."

"Or he developed them _because_ he's too trusting," Thundercracker countered.

"That makes literally _zero sense-_"

The debate might have continued, but the mech under discussion suddenly _vomped_ into existence by Thundercracker's knee. He looked excited. "This is my favorite stuff," he said more quickly than usual. "It's more expensive, but I guess it's supposed to be better for you? Also, it tastes _way_ better, so I always get it when I can."

He handed Thundercracker a cube from the rather large armful that he had. He whirled around, miraculously not managing to spill anything. "I brought one for you too, Starscream. I know you didn't ask for one, but I thought you might want one anyway." He carefully set a cube on the table near Thundercracker's berth, then turned again to sit down with Thundercracker. He meticulously arranged his cubes so that they were out of the way, but within easy reach.

Skywarp was nearly bouncing where he sat. "Well? What are you waiting for? Try one!"

Thundercracker smiled fondly at Skywarp's enthusiasm, then raised the cube to his lips. Over the cube, he noticed that Starscream's eyes were finally off the datapad as he watched Thundercracker with nearly as much interest as Skywarp. There was a faint smirk on his face.

Thundercracker took a sip and nearly choked at the flavor.

Once he'd gotten control of himself again, he managed to say "Skywarp, this is high grade!"

Skywarp's head cocked to one side. "Yeah, that's what the guy I get it from told me. That means it's really good for you, right?"

There was a moment of silence. Thundercracker stared at Skywarp. "No, Skywarp," he said. Somewhere behind him, Starcream had started laughing. "That's, that isn't what it means."

"Oh," Skywarp said, his face falling. He perked right back up again as he thought of something. "What _does_ it mean, then?"

Starscream's laughs tapered off, and he gave Skywarp an amused look. "You're not serious, are you? You actually think this stuff is 'good for you'?"

Skywarp nodded. Starscream started laughing again.

Thundercracker's mouth twitched, and he had to stomp on his own rising desire to laugh, powered by Starscream's amusement. "High grade...ha-um...is w-when...Screamer, _stop_..." which only made Starscream laugh harder. "It's when energon is ref-fined so well that it...that it messes with processing power-for Primus' sake, Star, _shut up you diva..."_

Skywarp looked between Starscream and Thundercracker in distressed confusion. "Is Starscream okay?" he asked tentatively.

Thundercracker rolled his optics, giving up. "Yeah, he's fine. Just…just drink your high grade, Skywarp, and ignore him. It's what I always do when he's getting too annoying."

Thundercracker was about to pick his datapad back up when he realized that there were an awful lot of cubes on the floor, even for all three of them. Skywarp had also started pulling more cubes from his subspace pockets. "Hey, Warp?"

"Yeah, TC?"

"Well, I don't mean to…um, just how many of these do you think we'll be drinking exactly?"

Skywarp shrugged. "I dunno. I like 'em a lot, so I brought enough for you guys to drink as many as you want."

Thundercracker frowned a little suspiciously. "How many drinks can you handle?"

Skywarp shrugged again. "Dunno, exactly."

From the berth, Starscream flashed them both a wicked grin. "Wanna find out?"

Thundercracker was a bit surprised by that challenge, but before he could respond, Skywarp's head dipped to the side. "Um…okay?"

"Excellent," Starscream said, and he jumped off the berth to begin dividing the cubes evenly between the two large mechs.

"Wait a minute," Thundercracker said, putting a servo on Starscream's arm, stopping him. "You're not competing?"

Starscream rolled his optics dramatically at Thundercracker. "As if _I_ would participate in such a pointless, plebian contest with you galoots. Besides," he added, shaking off Thundercracker's servo, "_someone_ has to referee to make sure you two don't cheat."

Thundercracker snorted. "It's cause you're a lightweight, isn't it?"

"Ex_cuse_ you?" Starscream said, suddenly bristling.

Thundercracker explained, unconcerned with Starscream's sudden offense. "You're too slight a frame. You couldn't burn off the high grade nearly as fast as Skywarp or me. We could drink you under the berth."

Starscream smirked. "I'm partial to _on_ the berth myself, but if it's the only way to get you on your back, Mr. Never-'Faced-Before…"

Thundercracker rolled his optics, disgusted with himself that he didn't see that coming. "Nevermind. You can be the ref. _Assuming_ you can stop being a pathological liar, a con artist, and an all-around jerk for all of an hour."

"I will have you know," Starscream said, returning to Thundercracker's berth and stretching luxuriously on it, "That my record for that has been a week."

"Oh yeah, I remember that," Thundercracker said, helping to divide up the last of the cubes. "You were in a coma."

"Shut up and drink your damn high grade," Starscream growled, projecting a stopwatch on the wall across from him. "You both drink as much as you can, as fast as you can. First one to give up or pass out loses. Readyset_go_!"

And with that, Thundercracker and Skywarp started downing high grade as fast as possible. Skywarp was hesitant at first, but when he saw the enthusiasm with which Thundercracker was going at his pile, he merrily picked up the pace, matching the other cube for cube.

Eleven and a half cubes in, and Thundercracker's world was spinning. Shakily, he lowered the cube he'd been trying to chug. He'd consumed too much, too fast, and error messages kept popping up, telling him involuntary recharge was imminent. He looked up to see how Skywarp was doing and it took a minute to register what he was seeing.

Skywarp was stilling knocking back the cubes with the same coordination and enthusiasm he had at the start.

"Alright, I give up," Thundercracker said, throwing his servos up. His speech was slurred, his quickly fading processor lagging and affecting his voicebox. Everything else seemed to be lagging as well - even the simple act of throwing his servos up seeming disjointed and uncoordinated.

Starscream stopped the clock and called the time. "Not bad, boys. I was gonna put money on you, TC. You were doing so well, too. Too bad you're too much of a useless loser to do anything - "

"Sh'up, Scream," Thundercracker said. "Warp, you can…you _should_. Er, ssssstop. Stop. You won."

"Cool," Skywarp said. He stopped guzzling the cube he had in his servo and started sipping it more appreciatively.

"_No,_" Thundercracker said, trying to knock the cube out of Skywarp's servo. He nearly succeeded - or at least, he thought he did. Skywarp kept weaving. Why was he doing that? "You're gonna…you're gonna hurt yourself, Warpy. You ca' handle that much high grade. 'S no good."

"What our inebriated friend is trying to say, Skywarp," Starscream cut in, "is that most mechs fall over after they've consumed over seventeen cubes of high grade."

Skywarp turned to look at Starscream. "Enibree-what now?"

"Oh Primus," Starscream said, venting melodramatically. "You really are a hopeless case. I don't know why I put up with you, I really don't."

Thundercracker had started to babble uncontrollably and Starscream rolled his optics. He slipped easily to his pedes. "Help me get him up here," he told Skywarp, gesturing towards the berth. Skywarp did as he was told, and together, they managed to get the largest mech among them into a comfortable position. When Thundercracker tried to sit up, Starscream pushed him down and got into his face. "Now listen up, you uncoordinated drone," he hissed at Thundercracker. "I want you to lay here, and _stay_ here. You are to count backwards from one thousand, and if you move before then, I swear I'll come back here and whip your aft within an inch of its life. Is that clear, you unintelligible miscreant?"

Thundercracker nodded, wide-eyed. "Y'know," Thundercracker said, "You'd be much scarier if there were always three of you."

Starscream gave a long-suffering vent. "_Count_," he commanded. Obediently, Thundercracker started to count slowly backwards from one thousand.

Starscream just shook his head and muttered quietly under his breath "Idiot." He turned to look at Skywarp, who was busy arranging the empty and full cubes of high grade into neat stacks. "Come on neat-freak," Starscream said. "Grab the cubes and let's get you to your room."

Skywarp flinched at that, and Starscream rolled his optics. "Oh for pit's sake, I'm not going to go _inside_ your room. I'm just going to make sure you get there alright!"

Skywarp hesitated. "Um…couldn't I…couldn't I just stay here?"

Starscream gave him a dubious look. "Why would you want to do that? Don't you have a berth? Aren't you tired?"

"Well, um, yeah, but - "

"Then I don't see what the problem is." He grabbed Skywarp's arm. "Let's go, big boy."

Skywarp didn't pull away exactly, but he didn't budge at all when Starscream tried to pull him out of the room. "Um…it's…it's kinda scary at night. So…so sometimes Thundercracker lets me sleep here."

Starscream just stared at Skywarp for a minute. Finally he said "You have _got_ to be kidding me."

Skywarp shook his head.

Starscream dropped Skywarp's arm in favor of crossing his arms. "Are you telling me that you two are 'facing?"

"_What_? No! TC would _never - _"

"Fine fine," Starscream said, massaging his faceplates. "Look, Skywarp, I don't really care where you sleep, who you're sleeping with, or who you're_ not_ sleeping with," he added, raising his servos defensively as Skywarp seemed ready to argue. "Primus above, you'd think I was insulting your progenitor. Anyway. My point is, you're gonna crash sometime soon, and I'd rather it not be in the hallway where someone can take advantage of you."

Skywarp had a confused expression, which Starscream pointedly ignored. Skywarp _always_ looked confused.

"Stay here if you want, go to your own berth if you want. It's all the same to me."

Skywarp thought about that for a minute. He rather decidedly went to sit in the chair he usually sat in when he read. "I'll stay here."

"Excellent. Great. Good. Fine." Starscream turned to go. "You have my comm frequency if something happens."

He managed to get all the way to his dorm before getting a message from Skywarp.

_[[Hey, Starscream?]]_

Starscream just sent a ping back that confirmed he'd gotten the message.

_[[I can't sleep.]]_

Starscream sent him another ping and entered the activation code for his hab suite door. He'd left Skywarp three minutes ago. The grown mech needed to figure out on his own that he needed more than three measly minutes to fall into recharge.

The door didn't open.

_Dammit._

He'd changed the code. Again. Which wasn't a problem or anything - really, it was a very smart thing to do, an opinion he told himself repeatedly whenever he reprogrammed the lock. After all, it'd be absolutely terrible if somebody were to break into his room and contaminate his more delicate experiments. His delicate, illegal experiments. Highly illegal, in fact. Technically, he wasn't supposed to have corrosive chemicals outside of the Academy's official laboratories. Upon a lifetime of imprisonment he wasn't supposed to have them in his quarters. Still, it was fine. It was _fine_. It just meant that he had to keep changing his lock combinations frequently.

Trouble was, he kept getting them confused. It took him a good six tries to get it right. He'd initially wanted to install a self-destruct device if the first three tries were incorrect - also illegal - but that project had blown up in his face. After that, he decided to stay away from explosives as much as possible.

Starscream picked his way around various piles of garbage to the false wall he'd installed by the side of his berth. Inside, there was just enough space between his wall and the room next to his to house a number of chemicals. It didn't offer _great_ ventilation, but it was fine. Really, it was fine.

Starscream took measurements on his various solutions, and jotted down the numbers on a datapad he kept beside the beakers in question. He added some organic material to his freshest batch and then went to tinker with some of the scrap metal he'd picked up from the scrapheap a few weeks ago.

There was an assortment of different materials, and he set out to organize them by composition. Some metals were more useful in chemical experiments, while others contained helpful wires and circuit boards. Within this pile alone, he'd already identified six motherboards and eight wireless routers. If he continued scavenging, he might even find enough parts to build his own computer...

It took time, but soon he'd finished sorting through the pile. Sweeping the more reactive metals in a bin for future use, he finally turned to the plastic wires, circuits, pins, and glassware. Potential computer parts, he thought, reaching for an old holomatter component. He turned it over in his hands, studying the seams and metal pathways. If he worked long enough, he might even have time to begin assembling some of the baser components today. He grabbed a screwdriver and began fiddling, mentally cataloguing the pieces he had and the pieces he'd need. This was going to be a _project_.

_[[Starscream?]]_

_[[Busy,]]_ he returned absently, carefully turning a tiny screw into position on a piece of metal.

_[[Oh. Sorry.]]_

Starscream set the piece of metal aside and reached for an interesting hinge he'd found.

_[[Starscream?]]_

_[[For Primus' sake, Skywarp, what do you want?]]_

_[[I still can't sleep.]]_

_[[It has been **ten minutes**, Skywarp.]]_

There was a moment of silence. Starscream had just finished convincing himself that Skywarp was going to leave him alone, when the other mech's voice crackled over the comm. _[[It's, um…kinda been two hours.]]_

Whinging moron. _[[What? That's ridiculous, you expect me to believe that heap of slag? I'm looking at my chronometer right now, and it's only been…]]_ Starscream cut himself off as he realized that Skywarp was right.

He cursed himself silently as he examined his work table. He squinted. Maybe it was because he'd been working on this project for two hours, but everything was looking a little blurry. No, not blurry…it was almost like there was an extremely thin veil in front of his optics…almost like smoke…

He swore louder and bolted out of his chair to where he'd been letting his chemicals bubble away. He bumped one of the vials with the more volatile materials, and some of it spilled on his servo, burning away some of the armor on it. Even as he hissed out obscenities, he could feel the nanites going to work on it, so he grabbed the burning pot of organic material. He darted back into his room, looking for _something_ to do with the pot of boiling liquids. He submerged it in a half-empty energon cube under his berth, knowing the stale energon would probably help cool down the viscous liquid faster.

The stale energon and the organic solution bubbled ominously as they combined, but Starscream had bigger issues. He darted into the middle of his room and scanned his piles of junk for something, _anything_, that'd pull the smoke from the air. While the smoke wasn't any more of a problem for Starscream than the chemical fumes had been, if any staff came by and detected the smoke, he'd have his aft handed to him. They'd find his secret lab, his stolen scrap…why did they care so much that he was stealing garbage anyway? Whatever. He'd worry about that after he'd dealt with his smoke problem.

Buried in the back of his cabinet, he finally found an air purifier he'd stolen from the lab, which he promptly used, denta gritted together in frustration the entire time. For the first few minutes, the purifier didn't seem to want to work. Starscream wasn't sure which was more of a miracle – that he managed to refrain from flinging the pit-slagged thing against the wall, or that he actually got it functional after fiddling with it for a few moments.

Starscream stuck the air purifier on his berth and vented for a few moments, relieved to have averted the near-catastrophe. After he'd recovered from his panic, Starscream opened his pinging message box. Skywarp had clogged Stascream's inbox while he'd been darting all around his room.

_[[Starscream?]]_

_[[Starcream, are you okay?]]_

_[[Starscream, please don't be dead.]]_

_[[Or in trouble.]]_

_[[Trouble's no good. Dead's probably worse, though.]]_

_[[Usually.]]_

_[[So if you're not dead, can you tell me a story?]]_

_[[TC usually tells me one when I can't sleep.]]_

_[[But he's asleep.]]_

_[[So will you do it?]]_

Starscream rolled his optics. Skywarp would probably just keep sending him messages until both of them passed out.

_[[FINE, if it'll get you to SHUT UP.]]_

_[[Thank you, Starscream,]]_ Skywarp said, with obvious relief.

_[[So help me Primus, if you interrupt even once, I will turn off my comm and you can tell YOURSELF a glitch-spouting story.]]_

Starscream waited a moment, and when he got no reply, he decided that meant that Skywarp was going to shut up and listen.

_[[Okay so. When I was a kid, my friends slash roommates and I were hanging in our hab suite, bored out of our processors. The kinda night where there just doesn't seem to be any action going on, you know? Well Steerclear goes "Hey, you guys wanna see something cool?" He's the kind of guy who wouldn't know cool if it came up and bit him in the aft, but we had nothing better to do, so we said sure. So he pulls out this box from his subspace like it's contraband or something. "I didn't want to show this to just anyone," he says, "but you guys are okay." Clearly not a bright mech._

_[[So he opens the box. It's this boring looking thing, and what's inside isn't any more interesting. It's just some kind of servo, only it's tiny and rusted. "The slag is this?" I ask him. "You told us you were showing us something cool!"_

_[["It's a hydro-weasel's claw," he tells us. "This box appeared in my room one day with a note carved inside. 'This claw will grant you any three wishes. Use carefully.'" Me and Aircurrent are like yeah right, but Steerclear's adamant that this thing has gotta be rocking the supernatural mystic mumbo jumbo somehow._

_[["So what are you gonna wish for then?" we ask him. "Dunno," he says. "You guys help me think of something."_

_[["Oh like it's really gonna work," Aircurrent chimes in. "Don't be boring," Steerclear says. Blah blah blah, they bicker for a bit, like the mechs of lesser intelligence that they are. I, of course, remain detached and above such pettiness.]]_

There was a laugh across the comm link.

_[[That wasn't a joke, Skywarp,]] _Starscream snapped.

_[[Sorry, Star.]]_

_[[I told you no interruptions!]]_

_[[Sorry - ]]_

_[[Just shut up!]] _Starscream snapped. After a few moments of silence, to ensure Skywarp wasn't going to interrupt again, Starscream continued_. [[So the idiot manages to come up with an idea, and it's because his fuel tank starts pinging him that it's low. Thinks with his pumps, just like you. So he says "I'm gonna wish for enough energon to last a lifetime." **I** told him it was a stupid waste of a wish, but my excellent advice was ignored, as usual. So he wishes over the thing, and we all rush over to the closet where he keeps his stash. Nothing. "Told you it wasn't gonna work," Aircurrent tells him. "Only cause you didn't believe in it," Steerclear retorted. They start fighting again, and I, being a sensible mech, decide to leave them to it and recharge._

_[[The next day after classes, I go back to the room and find Steerclear on his berth. He's sitting there rocking back and forth, so I ask him what the frag is wrong. He just points at the closet, so I fire the locking code at the door. Piles of dead mechs, all of them dripping energon. It's nasty and gross, with them all half-melted over each other, so I slam the thing closed again. Seriously, they all looked like slag, and I thought I was going to lose my lunch._

_[[Aircurrent finally shows up, and neither of us want him to open the closet cause we do **not** need to see that mess again. The idiot doesn't want to believe us about the abomination in the closet, even though he can **clearly **see the pool of energon leaking out from under the door._

_[[Takes us for-slagging-ever to convince him that it's real, that it isn't some sick trick. Eventually, Aircurrent says "Well, they **are** full of energon. That's what you wished for, wasn't it? Maybe the servo was just granting your wish."_

_[["If I'd wanted a closet-full of dead corpses, I would have said that!" Steerclear snaps. I tell him to stop griping and get the damned disgusting mess out of his closet. So being the sheer **genius** that he is, he wishes on the claw again: "I wish there aren't any corpses in my closet." And that's when the closet starts moaning.]]_

There was a whimpering sound coming from Skywarp's end of the comm, but he still hadn't interrupted. Starscream smirked to himself and continued.

_[[And then there's pounding and scratching on the door and all hell breaks loose. Steerclear and Aircurrent start to panic, spouting glitches everywhere. Aircurrent even decides to just open the door and let the abomination out, and you understand why that would have been a bad thing. But I, being a cool-headed mech under pressure, grab the turbo-weasel's claw. I wish the bodies are dead, far away, and that there's no evidence that they'd ever existed._

_[[Aircurrent opens the closet and BAM; nothing in it. So I saved the day once again, but did anyone think to thank me? No. Anyway, Steerclear got rid of the claw somehow. I don't really remember how he did it, but the important thing is that he never used that last wish which means he now lives in fear that if he even thinks "I wish" the claw will grant it. There, story's over, the end.]]_

For a moment, there was no noise at all over the comm. Starscream was about to probe Skywarp for some sort of response, when all he got over the comm was static. At first he thought Skywarp was messing with him or something, but then he realized.

_[[Skywarp…are you **crying**?]]_

_[[Th...Th…Thundercracker…won't wake up…]]_ came the small voice from the other end of the line. _[[A…and…I'm s-scared…]]_

Starscream was going to make a snide comment about how Skywarp shouldn't ask him for stories if he wasn't prepared to handle them, but the comm suddenly went dead.

_'For frag's sake,'_ Starscream thought. _'I think I actually scared the moron sparkless.'_ Granted, it _was_ Skywarp, which meant that wasn't particularly hard to do.

Starscream glanced over at his make-shift chemistry lab. He _had_ majorly screwed up his last experiment. That meant he wasn't going to be able to go to sleep anytime soon, especially not when his servo still hurt from where he'd spilled corrosive liquid on it. He picked through some supplies, gathered up a few, and quickly made his way to Thundercracker's quarters, wishing for Skywarp's ability to teleport so he wouldn't get caught with illegal contraband. Still, better that he be caught with this stuff in the hallway and not in his actual room.

Starscream kicked Thundercracker's door, his servos being full of beakers and burners, his subspace pockets already nearly overflowing with the things he'd thought he would need. _[[Yo Warp, open the damned door, will ya?]]_ Starscream hailed. At first, he thought Skywarp was ignoring him, but after a long moment, the door slid open.

Starscream strode easily into the room and unloaded the supplies in his arms on Thundercracker's table. "Warp, get over here and help me, I don't have enough servos."

When he didn't immediately hear the clicks, humming, and gentle thumps that are the tell-tale sounds of a mech moving, Starscream looked around the room. Skywarp was on Thundercracker's berth. Thundercracker was sprawled across the slab, and Skywarp was curled around him on the very edge of the berth, optics wide.

Skywarp put his servos on his hips. "Will you stop being a pathetic little sparkling for a second and get over here and help me?"

"Is that why you're so mean?" Skywarp whispered.

Starscream scowled. "I'm sorry, I don't live in Skywarp land. Do you want to explain what the hell it is you're talking about, or are you gonna make me play twenty questions?"

"Are you so mean because…because of that story?"

Starscream just stared at Skywarp. Oh Primus, the little idiot actually thought the story was a real one. The mech just took everything too damn literally. He wasn't sure if he found that funny or pitiful. Probably just a mix of both.

Still, he didn't particularly feel like explaining to Skywarp that sometimes "this actually happened to me" is just a story mechanic. He rolled his eyes a little and said "Yeah. Sure. Why not. Now get your aft up and gimme a servo."

Slowly, Skywarp released his grip on Thundercracker's arm and swung his legs down off the berth. He went to stand cautiously next to Starscream. "I don't understand - "

"So what else is new?" Starscream interrupted, pulling beaker after beaker out of his subspace.

"But I don't understand what you want me to do. Or…or why you _want_ me to help."

Starscream made a sour face. "Well, maybe once I get out of this damned institution, I'll install extra limbs so I can do everything for myself. Until then, I'm just going to have to rely on morons like you to do my grunt work."

"Okay," Skywarp said. He still sounded more subdued than usual, but he seemed pleased with that explanation. "So…what do I do?"

"Well first, you don't touch anything unless I say so," Starscream snapped, smacking Skywarp's hand as it hovered over the desk. Skywarp cradled his hand protectively but didn't protest. "Here's what I need you to do," he said, pulling several beakers full of chemicals closer to the edge of the desk.

"This one," Starscream said, holding up the biggest one up under Skywarp's olfactory sensor so he could get a good look at it, "is the most important one. Every time you use it, you usefive hundred milliliters. No more, no less. How many milliliters do you use?"

"Five hundred," Skywarp parroted back faithfully.

"Good," Starscream said. Next, he held up a jug of water. "You dilute that with one liter of this clear stuff. One liter, you got that?"

Skywarp nodded.

Starscream gestured at the array of empty beakers on the desk. There were at least a few dozen. "You mix them in these." He pointed at a stirring rod he'd put on the desk. "And for Primus' sake, stir them with that. Otherwise you'll pollute the samples and they won't work right."

"Five hundred milliliters, one liter, mix in those things with the stick," Skywarp repeated. He looked very focused now, and seemed to have forgotten his earlier fear completely.

"Right," Starscream said. Next, he pointed at the other jars full of liquids. Each was labeled as some chemical or other. "After you've mixed that up, add anywhere from two to three hundred milliliters of one of these chemicals. _One_ of them, Skywarp."

"Just one," he repeated, nodding.

"One to each beaker." Starscream picked one up. "That's these things, by the way. I need at least one beaker with each of the chemicals in it, but the more you can mix up for me the better." He handed the beaker in his servo off to Skywarp. "Get to work, grunt."

Skywarp slowly, carefully, began setting about measuring, pouring and mixing chemicals. Starscream began setting up his own work station: He swiped all the datapads off one of Thundercracker's shelves and used that as a worktable.

From behind him, Starscream heard a gasp. "Starscream," Skywarp said, excited and breathless, "Starscream, it changed color!"

"Of course it changed color, dummy," Starscream said without bothering to turn around. "All those little jars make it turn a different color. That's why I need at least one of each. And I can't actually do anything until I have enough samples, so get on it, you idiot."

After that, there was mostly silence in Thundercracker's room, except for the occasional suppressed gasp from Skywarp as he discovered a new color. For a few hours, the two mechs worked diligently on their various projects. Finally, Starscream pulled his attention out of simmering leaves, cellular walls, and isolating proteins long enough to notice that Skywarp had passed out at the worktable.

Starscream smirked. He stood up to stretch, his joints popping in and out of place as they realigned. As quietly as possible, Starscream started collecting up all of his projects, stowing them away in his subspace. After carefully prying one of the half-finished beakers from Skywarp's servo, he gathered up the rest of Skywarp's supplies in his arms, quietly exited the room, and crept down the halls back to his own hab suite.

Once safely in his quarters, he replaced his projects in his secret lab space. He was pleased to note that his room had aired out nicely with the help of the purifiers. He dumped out the useless beakers of Skywarp's brightly colored liquids into the half-empty energon container. As all the colors mixed, the ominous bubbling returned, and the mixture took on a nasty brown color. Starscream just rubbed a servo over his face at the mess and winced as he bumped the burns on his servo. He should probably take care of that at some point.

Instead of trying to dig through his endless piles of junk for a first aid kit, he returned to his own work desk to continue playing with the bits of scrap. He had a supercomputer to build.

* * *

The first thing Thundercracker noticed when he came out of recharge was his processor pinging error after error at him. He quickly flicked his optics on, hoping his lights would have turned off when they stopped sensing movement for more than an hour.

They had, and Thundercracker sent silent prayers to Primus. He accessed his light system, turning off autolights and switching over to manual. The system sent a ping of acknowledgement, and he dimmed the maximum light output to a dull glow.

Thundercracker sat up and swung his legs off the edge of his berth, cradling his processor in his hands, _and then his fragging lights blasted on at max power what the hell_. Thundercracker let out a little yelp of pain and nearly fell off his berth. He muttered under his breath, cursing his screwed up lights, and any other light systems that didn't work properly but still insisted they were fine. He settled on putting a darker filter over his optics to reduce the number of errors the light would send to his processor.

He'd managed to stumble to his closet to retrieve a cube of energon and had downed nearly half of it before Thundercracker noticed the slumped form at his workdesk.

Thundercracker poked Skywarp on the shoulder strut. "That doesn't look like a very comfortable place to sleep, Skywarp," he said.

The mech didn't move.

Thundercracker vented and shook the mech gently. "Come on, Skywarp, up an' at 'em."

The mech still didn't move.

Thundercracker shook him a little harder this time. "Warp, I _can't_ carry you to the berth. You're too heavy for me, bud."

Still, Skywarp didn't move.

Thundercracker checked to make sure the mech was still venting and that his spark was pulsing. Skywarp's armor felt warm to the touch, but no more absurdly warm than it usually did.

Thundercracker put his energon cube down on the table and started really shaking the stocky mech. "Skywarp," he said right in the mech's audial receptor. "Wake. The frag. Up."

With a quick burst of static, Skywarp sat up and mumbled "-jon?" He was looking around with glassy optics as though he wasn't quite aware of what was in front of him.

"What's 'jon'?" Thundercracker asked. Right at that moment, Skywarp's optics rested on the cube Thundercracker had left on the desk and Skywarp immediately grabbed it and chugged what was left. He looked around the room, then up at Skywarp . "Energon?" he asked, voice still thick with sleep, optics narrowed and unfocused.

Thundercracker just stared at Skywarp. "Are you kidding me? The smell of the energon is what woke you up?" He shook his head. "You're so strange sometimes, Warp."

Skywarp tugged Thundercracker's arm. "Energon," he insisted. It was clear that he wasn't going to be any more coherent than that until he got some fuel into his system.

"Yes, energon," Thundercracker said. He helped the other mech to his pedes. "Come on, big guy. Let's go get refueled."

Skywarp gave a weak cheer as he stumbled out of Thundercracker's quarters leaning heavily on the blue mech's shoulders.

Thundercracker winced. "And please keep the noise down. I have a wicked processor ache."

* * *

"You snore," was the first thing Starscream told Thundercracker when he walked into the big mech's quarters after his last classes of the day. "What the slag are you doing?" he asked when he actually took a proper look at the room.

Thundercracker was lying on his berth, one of his rags draped over his optics, two more muffling his audial fins. Skywarp was nowhere to be seen.

"Please," Thundercracker said weakly. "Don't speak. Your voice is like my own personal version of hell, Screamer."

Starscream snorted. "Serves you right for drinking yourself half blind last night."

"I'm serious," Thundercracker moaned. "You're killing me, here."

"Where's Skywarp?" Starscream just asked, noticeably raising the volume of his voice. "I'd've thought he'd be right there at your side. I mean, he _does_ practically live here now."

A very loud shushing noise came from the closet, and Skywarp emerged, a cleaning rag in his hand. "Thundercracker's sick," Skywarp said, whispering nearly as loudly as Starscream had spoken. Thundercracker winced.

"Oh. So sorry," Starscream said, changing his voice to that of a whisper as well, but not bothering to lower his volume. "Whatever were you doing in there, Skywarp?"

"Cleaning," Skywarp said. "Organizing."

"Yes, I thought his room looked a little nicer," Starscream commended him. "You do good work, Skywarp. Maybe you should be on the janitorial staff. Or even better, maybe you can come and fix up my room sometime."

"With you both please shut up," Thundercracker wailed, covering his audial wings with his servos and curling up on his side.

"Oh but _Thundercracker - _" Starscream began.

"Get out! Both of you get out and leave me in peace!" he begged. "Just let me die in peace!"

Starscream snickered, but he grabbed Skywarp's arm and towed him out of the room. Skywarp tried to protest, but he let Starscream drag him outside.

"Oh relax you overgrown mousebot," Starscream said. "He's not _really_ dying. He's just hung over. He'll be fine by tonight."

Skywarp looked fretfully at the door. "Are you sure? He seems really sick. Maybe he needs to go to the nurse's - "

"Stabilizer's a hopeless quack," Starscream interrupted. "And even if he wasn't, he'd just tell Thundercracker to do exactly what he's doing right now – to sleep and refuel regularly."

"Maybe we should bring him some energon," Skywarp said quickly. "I can go over to my place and bring him some of my high grade. That'd help right?"

Starscream just laughed. "I never woulda took you as a believer in 'energon of the turbofox that bit him'. You realize that doesn't actually work, right?"

Skywarp just looked at Starscream blankly for a moment before he rushed on with "High grade is better than regular energon, right? So it means he'll get better faster, cause it's better for him!"

Starscream frowned. "What are you…" His optics narrowed as he examined Skywarp's face. "Skywarp…do you have a processor ache? At all?"

"No," Skywarp said.

"Did you this morning?"

Skywarp shook his head.

"Any sensitivity to light or sounds?"

Skywarp had to think about that one a little longer than said "…no?"

"Are you sure?"

"I mean…no more than usual," he said.

"Have you ever had any of these things after drinking as much high grade as you did last night?"

Skywarp shook his head again.

Oh please. Air escaped from between Starscream's lipplates in a hiss. "Primus, you're a little glitch, you know that? How many cubes do you even need before you start to get properly overcharged?"

Skywarp first looked taken aback, then confused. "What's 'overcharged'?"

There was a moment of silence as Starscream _looked_ at him. "What - what do you _mean_ 'what's overcharged'? _Have you never gotten overcharged before?!_"

"I don't know what that - "

"Overcharged!" Skywarp could not be serious. He wasn't serious, was he? "You know, you can't balance and your processor slows down and you get stupid and can't control yourself. _Overcharged._"

"That sounds awful. Does that happen to you a lot? Maybe you should go Stabilizer about it."

Starscream couldn't believe it. "Do you _seriously_…no. No, no one is this stupid. You're messing with me right now as payback for that story I told you last night. You know, everyone thinks you're this innocent little mech, but you're a real piece of work. Who told you? Was it Flyaway? That half-wit will do anything to make me look bad…"

Skywarp just watched helplessly as Starscream seethed, confusion overtaking his thoughts. Why was Starscream upset? _Why was he mad?_

"You know, this is what I get for trying to be nice. Well, forget you." Starscream started to walk away, but then he turned around and stormed back. "You know, right, that everyone thinks you're pathetic? That they all see you as this big dumb oaf, who's only good for a frag? Personally, I don't see why anybody even sees that much in you."

With that, Starscream turned on his heel and stormed down the hallway to his own quarters.

Skywarp stared after him. What. What had just happened. _What had just happened_.

Was it his fault? Did he do something? What had he done? Had he done something bad? Something irreparably bad? Had he _ruined_ this? Skywarp fought back the static that was building up in his vocalizer. Starscream could be mean, but he'd never been that _awful_ to Skywarp before - but then, Skywarp had long ago realized that he tended to inspire the worst in others. Perfectly nice people would lie, would anger, would tire of him. It was nothing new. He was a tiring person.

_This is my fault._

And the worst part, he thought with growing dread, was that the one thing he could trust about Starscream was his honesty about his feelings. If _that_ was how Starscream felt, then maybe - and Primus did it hurt to think this - maybe the friendship Skywarp thought they'd been developing hadn't meant anything after all.

It was a crushing thought.

In all the yelling, Skywarp hadn't noticed the pings from his inbox. He checked in, and his spark contracted slightly at the words that flashed across his HUD:

_[[When I kicked you out of my room, it wasn't so I could hear you two shouting right outside the door. Argue where I can't hear you, morons.]]_

Even Thundercracker was mad at him, then. Thundercracker - infinitely patient, kind, booknerd Thundercracker - couldn't stand him. _This is terrible, this is awful, this is my fault, I did this, I screwed up – _

Static building, optics fritzing, Skywarp ran straight to the one safe space left for him, knocking mechs aside in his hurry to get back to his room. He couldn't hurt anybody there.

* * *

**A/N: **School is starting for me, and I'm gonna need time to edit things between homework and classes. Bad news is, that means the next chapter will be up a month from now, which I know is a long time, but it helps ensure I have the same quality writing I've had up til this point. This fic has gotten a lot of followers, favorite, and review (for me, anyway) and I just want you guys to know that it means a lot to me. I'm excited that you're excited to continue on this twisting journey with me.

As always, my love and thanks to my magnificent editor/beta/co-conspirator Jideni3. Some days it feels like all the best stuff actually comes from her. Next time, we get to see the aftermath of this little debacle as TC tries to pick up the pieces. See you guys on October 4th. Until then.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 - Explanations**

* * *

**A.N.:** So I hope you guys like angst. And resolution to angst. And idiots being idiots. Well, I'm assuming you like the latter, because you're here reading the newest chapter. I could probably say more, but I'll just let this speak for itself.

The next chapter will be up November 1st. Until then.

* * *

It was one of the worst hangovers of Thundercracker's young life. It took him until well into the next morning for his processor-ache to fade, and it wasn't until nightfall that he was rid of all the little lingering error messages.

Thundercracker left his room as soon as the worst pain had faded, mostly in search of fuel. He promptly locked himself back in his room immediately after he'd acquired a few cubes of energon. He hadn't even minded the increased price a few extra cubes cost him, so bad did his processor hurt.

Primus, but he hadn't expected Skywarp to be able to outdrink him. They were an even match width-wise, but Thundercracker still had a solid meter of height on Skywarp. Surely he should have been able to take the black and purple mech?

As Thundercracker slowly stopped feeling like Unicron was using him as a chew toy, he realized how big his room felt. Well, big and small. It felt too big because there weren't two other mechs crowded into the space, stealing his berth, table, and chairs and leaving him with nothing but floor space. It felt small because there wasn't the sound of bickering filling up the room, there weren't stupid competitions like arm-wrestling matches and dance-offs being held in it, filling the space with life and noise. Without Skywarp and Starscream, it was just blank white walls and utilitarian furniture. It was empty and unmarked, quiet, pointlessly large, suffocating.

He hated it.

It reminded him too much of when he'd first left his trine, how echoing and alone his head had felt. His mind still felt a little too empty, and occasionally he caught himself reaching out to one of his trine-mate's extra memory storage RAMs until he could make room for the information in his own processor. It still felt like a slap in the face that there _was_ no extra memory storage waiting for him.

He sent twin pings to Starscream and Skywarp and sipped at his energon slowly, the seconds inching by in the way that only time can when a mech is waiting. After ten minutes of fidgeting, he gave in and went to check on Starscream, because the scrawny mech's quarters were closer to his own. When there was no reply at the door to Starscream's quarters, he concluded Starscream must be tinkering away in one of the academy's science labs, and Thundercracker was damned if he could ever figure out which one Starscream was in.

Rather than hunt through the facility looking for the ornery mech, Thundercracker trotted off in the direction of Skywarp's quarters. He hoped Skywarp wasn't off getting refueled, or in class or something.

When Thundercracker finally knocked on Skywarp's door, there was no answer either. Thundercracker vented heavily. He should have guessed that they were both busy. They were both still required to attend classes, after all, and it was the middle of the day.

Thundercracker hadn't realized how few friends he had left at the academy until that moment. Impulsively, he wrapped his arms around himself, though for comfort or protection, he wasn't sure which. He suddenly felt very small and very alone. Like an unnecessary cog.

_Useless._

Thundercracker crept back to his own quarters and curled up on his berth. He tried to read for a while, but it just wasn't the same without the others there. His optics wouldn't track the sentences, and he found himself rereading the same passage multiple times, absorbing nothing, too preoccupied with the buzzing silence pressing in on him. He flicked off the datapad.

Without warning, Thundercracker felt static build up in his vocalizer. His HUD flickered with white noise as he choked out a static-ridden sob. He was alone. He was alone for the first time since he'd disconnected from his trine. He'd known this - he'd known that he was alone, that he was trineless, that he was unbonded - but it had been an external knowledge, a footnote in his life. Now, in his room, it had finally hit him that he was alone in the world, and that there was no one who cared if he lived or died. There was no one to talk sense into him when he was being too stubborn to listen, no one to laugh at him when he was taking himself too seriously, no one to sit in front of him when he just needed to think out loud.

He was alone. He had no one. He _was_ no one.

For a long time, Thundercracker cried. The static didn't stop until after the last traces of his hangover were gone. Didn't stop until after the lights dimmed from a lack of motion in the room. Didn't stop until after Thundercracker had fallen asleep, his body heaving occasionally as static burst from his voice box.

* * *

Starscream, insufferable scraplet that he was, waltzed into Thundercracker's room the next day as though nothing was wrong.

"Don't ping me when I'm working with dangerous chemicals," was all he said by way of acknowledging the previous day's events, which was perhaps the closest he could ever get to giving an apology, at least as far as Thundercracker could tell.

Starscream had a nasty habit of speaking as he came into a room and assessing the situation only _after_ he'd swept past the threshold. So it wasn't until he was fully in the room that he saw that Thundercracker was alone, and that he was lying on the berth on his side, without so much as a datapad in sight. "Don't tell me you're _still_ hung over," Starscream scoffed.

"No," Thundercracker mumbled.

"Good. Then you won't mind giving me my spot back, you cretin." Starscream stood at Thundercracker's side and poked his sharp servos in between Thundercracker's plating. "Seriously, move it. I have a lot of reading I need to get caught up on, and how am I supposed to do that if I'm not dominating your freakishly comfortable berth?"

Thundercracker rolled over and focused on ignoring Starscream as thoroughly as possible.

Starscream scowled. "No, see, that's the wrong answer, TC. You're supposed to say something sarcastic about how my berth would be as comfortable as yours if I'd get all my junk off of it, blah blah blah, more witty banter ensues, culminating in you graciously offering me your berth as a place to do my reading."

When Thundercracker still didn't say anything, Starscream snarled. "I _will_ drag your aft to Stabilizer. Don't think I won't." It was a legitimate threat. Stabilizer had little tolerance for mechs going into the medical center without actual serious injuries. He'd put a mech with anything less than a ruptured fuel line on cleaning crew for months as punishment. He'd even locked some in the brig for a few days for good measure, according to rumor.

Thundercracker blew cool air on his internal systems, trying to steady himself. "I'm, um…I'm not in the mood, Starscream."

Starscream rolled his optics, irritated. "Oh _Primus_, tell me you and Warp didn't have some kind of lover's spat."

Thundercracker sat bolt upright on his berth at that. "_What?!_" he demanded, staring at Starscream in wide-eyed shock. "What…_what_ in the name of _Primus_ would make you _think_…" he trailed off, spluttering at Starscream's self-satisfied smirk.

"Oh please," Starscream scoffed, his grin a blend of smugness and mild offense. "If you two interacted anywhere other than just your room, the whole academy would think you two practically spark-bound."

"We are _NOT - _" Thundercracker yelped, but cut himself off when his voice processor involuntarily hit an uncomfortably high note on the "not". He reset the box and tried again, Starscream laughing at him with his optics. "Skywarp and I are not…spark-bound," he said, the last word coming out uncomfortably. "We're not interfacing either. We're just…friends. That's it. I would _never_…I mean…" Thundercracker's faceplates hissed as energon rushed to them and they became hotter than the surrounding air.

"Oh my god," Starscream said, barely containing his laughter. "I knew you'd never 'faced before, but this is something else entirely." He crossed his arms and cocked an optic ridge at Thundercracker, shooting him a wicked look. "_Never_? You'd _never_ swap coding with Skywarp? That'll break the poor little mech's spark when I tell him…"

Thundercracker scowled. "Don't be a jerk, Starscream."

"But I do it _so_ well," Starscream purred, posing dramatically at the edge of Thundercracker's berth. It was Thundercracker's turn to roll his optics at that. "But seriously," Starscream said, mood shifting to blatant curiosity. "You'd _never_ interface with Skywarp?"

Thundercracker suddenly felt uncomfortable. Starscream's optics felt like searchlights, prying into the corners of his processor. "I…" In all honesty, he wasn't sure he had an answer. He couldn't meet Starscream's optics.

"What is so _difficult_ about that question?" Starscream snapped losing his patience. "Either you would or you wouldn't. Would you 'face me?"

Thundercracker's helm snapped up and he scooted as far from Starscream as the berth would allow him to.

"I'd say that's a 'no'," Starscream said, not bothering to let Thundercracker get an actual answer out. He crossed his arms and leveled Thundercracker with a scathing look. "You didn't have to be quite so _enthusiastic_ about that rejection." He examined the tips of his servos as though he'd suddenly lost all interest. "I'm almost offended."

Thundercracker rolled his optics again. "Starscream, you're beautiful, but I am never letting you anywhere near my spark, cords or no."

"Good," Starscream said, flopping down on the berth next to Thundercracker, now that a space had been opened up. "Cause I feel the same way about you." When Thundercracker shot him a confused look, Starscream vented, annoyed. "Oh please, I'm not buying into your whole 'intimacy' crap. You're a good-looking mech, TC – I like 'em big." He shot Thundercracker a salacious smile that left Thundercracker distinctly uncomfortable. It must have shown on his faceplates because Starscream just laughed at him. "You're also _way_ too tame for me. I don't like my partners quite as…timid as you are. Plus," he said, reclining on Thundercracker's berth, twining his fingers behind his helm, "I actually like you. You're an okay guy, you know, for someone with a pole up his aft. And I don't interface people I actually like." He kept his optics locked on the ceiling, but Thundercracker was sure Starscream was studying him with his peripheral sensors. "They get all sorts of ideas and _feelings_, they start thinking we're gonna be, I dunno, an _item_ or some such slag…" He vented softly. "It just gets messy."

"That sounds like experience," Thundercracker said quietly, not used to this new, honest side of Starscream. He didn't want to frighten this Starscream away before he'd gotten a chance to get to know it.

Starscream shrugged. "Yeah, well. We all do stupid things when it's our first time. I haven't done it since. Course, I haven't had any friends since," he added with a derisive laugh.

"Can I ask their name?" Thundercracker said, afraid he was crossing a line. Starscream actually opening up of his own accord was…a weird experience. He didn't want to spoil it, but he was curious nonetheless.

"Flyaway," Starscream said quietly. "She's a nasty glitch, total piece of work - "

"I can see why you liked her," Thundercracker said with a grin.

"Get fragged," Starscream retorted, but there was no venom in his voice. He sat up on his elbows, suddenly looking contemplative. "Speaking of," he said, "where is the third member of our merry band of rejects? I thought you two were pretty much inseparable."

Thundercracker sat up as well, sitting cross-legged on his berth. "I don't know. I haven't heard from him since you two decided to play 'Who Can Shout Louder When TC's Hungover'."

"Huh."

Suspicion was starting to become second-nature at this point."Starscream," Thundercracker said slowly, not liking the smaller seeker's tone. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Starscream protested, but it sounded a little too defensive to be true.

"Starscream," Thundercracker repeated, keeping his tone quiet and even. The fact that brash, arrogant Starscream absolutely _refused_ to meet his optics was telling.

After a few moments of dragging silence, Starscream finally caved."I hardly see how it's _my_ fault if your little frag-friend can't take a little constructive criticism!"

"Constructive criticism?" Thundercracker asked, his tone carefully neutral. Too much emotion and Screamer would just start living up to his name.

"Well so maybe it wasn't quite…tch, you know this isn't my fault!" Starscream snapped, glaring up at Thundercracker. "If he's…I don't know, missing or pouting or whatever, that doesn't mean it's my fault!" Somehow, even though he was at a lower level than Thundercracker, he didn't seem in the least bit intimidated. Maybe it was because he was _used_ to having to look up at people. After all, he was remarkably short for a seeker.

"Okay, it's not your fault. But it wasn't his fault that _you_ went off to pout in the badlands, and he was still out there helping me look for you."

Starscream looked away again, suddenly finding an energon stain on Thundercracker's wall intensely interesting.

"Starscream," Thundercracker said, exasperation creeping into his voice.

"I told him a story!" Starscream snapped. "I was…when you passed out, he was acting like this lost little sparkling. It was pathetic, but I figured, 'what the hell, I'll humor him'.I tried to be _nice_ to him, just once, and then he had the audacity to pretend he didn't know what 'overcharged' meant. He was so _obviously_ baiting me, and I might've…implied no one in their right processor would want to 'face him." Starscream suddenly switched gears, saying "You see that this is entirely his fault, right? I am completely in the clear on this one. I'm the _victim_!"

Thundercracker rubbed his faceplates. "Starscream…I know you have a temper. And Primus knows no one should believe a word off your glossa when you get really torqued. But _Skywarp doesn't know that_. And Skywarp likes you because, unlike almost every other mech he's known, _you are always honest with him_." He looked hard at Starscream. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Starscream groaned and gracefully rolled off Thundercracker's berth. "You're saying he thinks we hate him."

"No, I'm saying he thinks _you_ hate him," Thundercracker corrected, slipping off the berth, his bulk making it impossible to perform the same maneuver Starscream had. "Don't rope me into this just 'cause you're trying to dodge responsibility."

"I hardly see how him misinterpreting my words and having a temper tantrum constitutes as my fault," Starscream said in his most bland tone.

"You are _so_ self-righteous," Thundercracker mumbled. He wasn't quiet enough.

"You're only just now figuring that out?" Starscream said with a sneer. He counted off on a servo, "You also forgot everyone's other favorites: Arrogant, obnoxious, egotistical, insufferable, self-centered - "

"Yes you have problems!" Thundercracker cut in. "Can we go find Skywarp now? I'm worried about him." Starscream smirked knowingly, and Thundercracker grumbled "Don't say it," as he walked past the slight seeker towards the door.

Starscream held up his delicate servos, faux innocence plastered all over his faceplates. "I have utterly no idea what you could ever mean, my dear Thundercracker." Still, he followed Thundercracker and the door slid shut behind them with a hiss of pneumatics.

* * *

After managing to rule out all the other obvious places that Skywarp could be, Thundercracker and Starscream finally found themselves outside Skywarp's quarters, the door locked against them.

"We already tried here, and he either isn't letting us in, or he's not home," Thundercracker protested, worry bleeding into his tone. Next to him, Starscream poked at the datapad that served as the manual lock for Skywarp's door.

"So let's find out which," Starscream said, pulling a laser-scalpel out of his subspace with a smirk.

Thundercracker's optics widened. "Where did you even _get_ that?" he demanded quietly, quickly glancing around to make sure the hallway was clear. Students weren't supposed to have medical tools, which meant Starscream must have _stolen_ _it_ at some point. Thundercracker wasn't sure whether to feel angry or worried.

"Please," Starscream said condescendingly. He waved a hand at Thundercracker. "Make yourself useful for once and play look-out like a good little mech."

Thundercracker grumbled about no-good, stuck-up, sticky-servoed seekers, but did as Starscream asked. He stood by the corner nearest Skywarp's door, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. It gave him the perfect vantage point to see if anyone was coming from either end.

After only a few minutes and four muttered curses from Starscream, the door slid open. Thundercracker didn't even see Starscream pocket the laser-scalpel, but suddenly it was gone. "Am I magnificent, or am I magnificent?" Starscream asked, spreading his servos wide as though inviting Thundercracker to view his handiwork.

"I certainly wouldn't have pegged you as the type to be able to pick a lock," Thundercracker said.

Starscream grinned and crossed his arms. "These academy doors are scrap. You'd think they'd have better security what with this being a state-sponsored institution."

"Right, cause the Vosian government is just leaking money," Thundercracker said dryly. "Especially with all the slag going on at the borders these days." He held up a servo, cutting Starscream off before he could snap back with something smart. "Can we get inside before somebody sees us? Or Skywarp locks us out again?"

Starscream shut his lipplates sharply and pointedly strode into Skywarp's quarters. Thundercracker followed behind with a bit more reluctance.

It didn't take long for the two to determine that the room was empty.

Starscream flopped on the berth, servos interlacing behind his helm. "Well, we might as well get comfy," he said, settling in for a long wait.

Thundercracker looked around uneasily. Skywarp had always been touchy about others being in his space, and Thundercracker didn't feel right about staying in the room without Skywarp's permission. It was bad enough that they'd broken in. Thundercracker didn't want to make it worse by being in Skywarp's private space when he returned. "Uh…maybe we should wait outside," he said tentatively.

"Nope," Starscream said, shuttering off his optics. "If Skywarp didn't want us in here, he shouldn't have tried to avoid us. Besides, this is _way_ more comfortable than the floor."

Thundercracker shot Starscream an annoyed look. "Not telling us to stay out is not the same thing as inviting us in, Starscream," he snapped.

The infuriating seeker ignored him and continued to lounge, his optics off as though he were preparing to take a nap. "Yeah. You're totally not in love with him. You're just overprotective of his private space."

"And is there something wrong with that?" Thundercracker snapped.

"Oh, not at all," Starscream said, dimly relighting one optic. "It's sort of sweet, really. You know, in a pathetic sort of way."

Thundercracker gritted his denta and grabbed Starscream by his arm.

"Hey!" Starscream yelped as Thundercracker dragged him from the berth. The slight mech was easy to pull out of Skywarp's room, even with him struggling and fighting the entire way.

Thundercracker threw Starscream against a wall, ignoring Starscream's protests that it hurt, and hit the button on the door that would lock it as soon as it swished shut. Thundercracker bent down so he could get right in Starscream's face.

"Let's get one thing straight," Thundercracker hissed at Starscream. "You're not going to go into Skywarp's room _ever again_ without his permission. I don't care if you think permission is implied, or if you're convinced he's lying in there dead. Unless you get a verbal 'yes, please come in, Starscream' or screams for help, you don't set one pede in there. And if I find out you _have_ gone in there without his permission, I will personally drop your aft back in the wilderness where we found you. Understand?"

"Primus, yes already!" Starscream said, shoving Thundercracker away. He shifted, uncomfortable, glaring and mumbling, "Totally not in love. Just his fragging knight in gold-plated armor." He rubbed his servos absently, and Thundercracker ignored him, scanning the hallways.

It was only when Starscream hissed that Thundercracker looked back down at him, still sitting on the floor. Starscream had put his servos behind his backstrut for some reason. Thundercracker's optics narrowed.

"Starscream," he said.

"Oh what _now_?" the smaller seeker demanded, sounding more than a little annoyed.

"Let me see your hands."

Starscream stared obstinately at Thundercracker and sneered. "Why? You gonna smack 'em to show me how bad I've been?"

Thundercracker was not in the mood for Starscream's games, and he grabbed the slight mech's arm again to loud protests. He easily yanked Starscream's servo out where he could see it, holding it still even as Starscream kept trying to yank it away.

"You'll pop it out of alignment if you don't quit moving," Thundercracker snapped, and Starscream stopped trying to throw off his grip. It did nothing to stop him from running his mouth, but Thundercracker easily ignored him in favor of studying the hands.

There were obvious recent scorch marks on them. Thundercracker frowned and peered closer, a bloom of concern taking root. There were clear marks from corrosive materials on his servo, one only partially repaired by nanites. There was a large, badly welded patch on the palm – it looked like Starscream had applied that particular repair himself.

Thundercracker loosened his grip, and quick as lightning, Starscream snatched his servo back, rubbing it protectively with his other hand. He was glaring up at Thundercracker, and the blue mech was fairly certain that if looks could kill he'd be lying on the floor in a puddle of his own energon.

"How in the pit do you let your servos get in that bad a condition?" Thundercracker demanded. He sounded angrier about it than he'd meant to, probably some left-over anger from earlier.

"I actually _use_ them, unlike some mechs," Starscream snapped, holding his servos tighter to his chest, as though afraid Thundercracker would grab them again.

With a heavy vent, Thundercracker flopped down on the floor next to Starscream. Out of the corner of his optic, he saw Starscream edge a little away from him. He didn't blame the mech after his outburst from earlier. "You should really be more careful," Thundercracker said finally, shuttering his optics and leaning his helm back against the wall. "The number of chemicals you handle, you're lucky you haven't gotten a rust infection in one of those wounds. What're you gonna do if you lose a servo? No one's gonna hire a one-handed scientist."

"It's _because_ of the number of chemicals that I haven't gotten a rust infection," Starscream said acidly. "And if I _did_ lose a servo, it's called restorative surgery, you idiot."

Thundercracker pursed his lipplates and made a humming sound. "You're right. Those chemicals probably corrode anything that isn't reinforced titanium. Including your nanites, which explains all those scars and pock-marks." He flickered on an optic to see how Starscream reacted to that.

Starscream's nose was in the air, his chin raised to a superior angle. He sniffed. "They give my servos character, which is something a mech like you could stand to use a little of."

Thundercracker gave one dry chuckle. "I didn't realize 'character' was synonymous with 'pain'."

Starscream shot Thundercracker a glare, and Thundercracker met his optics with an amused smile. For a brief second, he thought Starscream's expression softened marginally.

In a flash, the moment was gone, undone by the sound of footsteps coming their way. Thundercracker jumped to his own. Part of him wanted to go meet the mech, but if it wasn't Skywarp he could picture how utterly awkward that would be. Starscream didn't deign to stand up, utterly indifferent about whether it was Skywarp, Stabilizer, or even Freefall.

It was indeed Skywarp who came around the corner. Slumped around the corner was more accurate.

He looked like slag. His optics were dim, which was a sure sign that he hadn't refueled lately. He was moving slower than usual, and he was favoring his right leg. The limp was slight enough to suggest mere stiffness and not actual injury, but Thundercracker managed to worry anyways.

To a lot of mechs, the limp wouldn't mean much. To Thundercracker, who had nearly the same build as Skywarp, it didn't mean anything, except to spike his concern. Starscream, however, narrowly-built Starscream, whose frame was not the same, whose frame meant he didn't have to worry about being crammed uncomfortably onto the edge of a berth too narrow to comfortably hold two broad-framed mechs, snickered.

"Skywarp, are you alright?" Thundercracker asked, striding forward to meet the mech.

Skywarp took one look at him - concerned, open-faced, arms outstretched - and shied away.

Thundercracker froze, and he slowly lowered his arms. That had hurt more than he thought it should. "I…sorry." He waited a moment. "Do…do you need us to leave you alone?"

Starscream belted out a laugh. When both Skywarp and Thundercracker turned to look at him, he offered them a smug grin and said, "Virgins. You have _got_ to love them."

Thundercracker continued to look confused, but Skywarp took a step back, mortified. Starscream finally got to his pedes, sauntered over, and threw an arm across Skywarp's shoulders. He beamed at Thundercracker. "This," he began companionably, "Is what we of the berth-hopping profession like to call the 'walk of shame'. Or, in my case, 'the strut of sluts'."

There was no physical way for Skywarp to look more horrified than he did at that moment. He shrunk down under Starscream's arm, trying to make himself look as small as possible.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Starscream crooned, stepping away and looking coyly between Skywarp and Thundercracker. "Was that something you wanted to keep to yourself, Skywarp _darling_?"

Skywarp looked about ready to break out in static. "How about we go somewhere that's not the middle of the hallway," Thundercracker said quickly. If Skywarp was going to have a breakdown, he didn't want Skywarp to have to go through that in such a public area.

* * *

By the time they got Skywarp back to Thundercracker's room - and by the time they got him to stop bursting static - it was well into the evening. Realizing that Skywarp's lack of fuel wasn't helping the situation, Thundercracker sent Starscream on an energon run, which he only reluctantly agreed to after much whining and more than a few threats of bodily harm. As soon as he was gone, Thundercracker pulled a cube from his own private stash to help top off the crying mech's fuel levels. They didn't say much, sitting in silence until Starscream returned with a few more cubes.

"So," Thundercracker said. He was sitting on the floor as usual. He'd evicted Starscream from his usual spot on the berth, and now Skywarp sat comfortably on the edge of it, legs swinging freely like a sparkling. "Do you…do you wanna talk about…you know?"

"Does he want to talk about how he went and 'faced a random mech?" Starscream asked bitterly. He was sitting cross-legged on Thundercracker's single chair and refusing to look at either of them, an untouched cube of energon at his elbow. "Tell you what, TC, I'll give you three guesses for that answer, one for each member of a trine. Oh wait, you're not in one anymore. Oops, my bad."

"I'm sorry," Skywarp mumbled, not meeting Thundercracker's optics. "Please don't leave, Thundercracker. I know you don't like it when people - "

"I don't like it for _me_," Thundercracker said, putting a servo on Skywarp's pede. "I don't like being intimate with someone I barely know. I don't have a problem with other mechs doing it. And Warp, I'm not going to leave - "

Biting, caustic,_"You left your last _- "

"Will you SHUT UP, Starscream?" Thundercracker said, turning to glare at the scrawny mech. "I left them because they were afts who didn't respect me or my boundaries."

"Wow. They sound _wonderful_. Maybe I should give them a call, we can hang out, bond over how much disrespect we have for you. You don't happen to still have their personal comm channels do you?" Starscream sneered.

"You're an aft," Thundercracker said evenly, pointedly keeping his temper in check. "But you basically come with that carved onto your chassis. In block letters. Lit up. With narration."

Starscream snorted, still refusing to look at him.

"But my trine _didn't_ respect me," Thundercracker said, turning to look back at Skywarp. "Like you said, I…I know where I stand with Starscream. Always. It doesn't matter what I've done, he's always gonna tell me how he feels about me. To my face. It feels good. Especially after I'd promised to spend my life with two mechs who didn't even have the decency to tell me how they felt about me after I'd let them inside my head."

"Still in the room, you know," Starscream said, examining the tips of his servos. Thundercracker fleetingly wondered how much of that was for show and how much of it was him actually looking at the damage he'd done to his servos. "Also, you keep sweet-talkin me like that, I'm gonna think it's me you're in love with and not a certain other mech who shall remain nameless," he added, looking pointedly at Skywarp.

Thankfully, Skywarp missed the look, and probably everything else Starscream had said. "I'm glad you're feeling better, TC," Skywarp mumbled quietly. "You were so sick, and I…I thought you might've actually-"

"Oh cut the act," Starscream snapped. "No one's buying that you don't know what 'overcharged' means!"

"Shut up, Screamer," Thundercracker said. When Starscream opened his mouth to protest, Thundercracker shot him an annoyed look. "Not everybody is as duplicitous as _you_ are. Do you honestly think he'd lie this long about not knowing what overcharged means? Doesn't it make more sense that he _actually_ doesn't know what we're talking about?"

"Not really," Starscream muttered, but he looked away as he said it. "You don't know him like I do, Thundercracker. You're convinced he's this…this innocent little mech, but you haven't seen - "

"Maybe he's as big of a jerk as you claim he is," Thundercracker countered. "Just like maybe you're as big a jerk as everybody else claims you are."

Starscream scoffed. "Oh I'm worse," he purred, crossing his legs and folding his servos across his knee-joint.

"And yet you still took my side when Freefall and Stabilizer were out for my inner energon," Thundercracker said with a grin.

Starscream gave Thundercracker a smile that looked more like a pained snarl. "Well that's simply because I hated them more than you at the time. Why don't you go piss 'em off now, see who's side I start taking?"

Thundercracker just shook his head and chuckled.

Skywarp suddenly reached down and tugged on Thundercracker's arm. "Hey, TC? Can…can you tell me a story? A nice one. One with a happy ending."

Thundercracker frowned. "Uh…sure? Why do you want a story, though?"

Skywarp's faceplates hissed, and he looked away. "I, um…I'm tired. Couldn't sleep last night."

Starscream belted out a laugh and said "Oh I'll just bet you couldn't."

Thundercracker ignored him, standing up to get a better look at Skywarp's face. Skywarp's optics were dim, even after he'd assured them he was fully refueled. His chassis was humming louder than usual as well, and he was running pretty hot. Then again, Skywarp seemed to run a little warmer than most mechs, so Thundercracker wasn't confident he'd be able to identify if Skywarp was running hotter than usual. "Have you been sleeping at all?" he asked.

Skywarp wouldn't look at him, but he shook his helm.

"When was the last time you recharged, Skywarp?"

Skywarp's optics flickered towards Starscream, then back to the patch of floor he'd been staring at. "It was…that night we drank energon and you went into recharge."

"The drinking game?" Thundercracker asked, and he didn't' wait for Skywarp's nod of confirmation before straightening and looking at Starscream. "What did you do?"

Starscream's servo fluttered to his chassis. "Why would you assume _I_ did anything?" he demanded instantly.

"Because you're a jerk," Thundercracker informed him, crossing his arms. "What happened after I passed out?"

"Nothing!" Starscream said with an exaggerated optic roll. "Primus, you'd think I'd poisoned someone the way you're reacting."

"I haven't quite ruled it out," Thundercracker grumbled before crouching back down to try and catch Skywarp's optics. "Hey, Warp, why don't you tell me what happened that night after I fell asleep?"

"W-well," Skywarp said, shooting another furtive glance over at Starscream, "not much. I um…Starscream left pretty soon after. I…I didn't wanna go back to my quarters all alone."

"Why?" Thundercracker said, instantly pouncing on that piece of news. "Is someone giving you a hard time, Warp?"

"No!" Skywarp said, looking up for the first time. His face hissed again. "I mean…no more than normal. Um…it's just…I feel better when you tell me a story as I go home. I don't feel alone that way. It's nice."

Behind them, Starscream stifled a laugh, but when Thundercracker turned to look at him, he'd picked up a datapad and was pointedly ignoring both of them. He glanced up and caught Thundercracker looking at him. "Oh no, I'm not here," he said graciously. "You two just have your little conversation. You won't hear so much as a ping out of me," he said, miming locking up his lipplates and throwing away the key.

Thundercracker just shook his head and turned back to Skywarp. "Ignore him," he said.

Skywarp nodded. "I usually do."

"Hey!" Starscream snapped, face clouding in anger and something else that Thundercracker couldn't quite place. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Half the time you say stuff that I don't understand!" Skywarp explained. "It's easier to just ignore you than to try and work out what you said. Cause by the time I do, everyone's talking about other things and I'm lost!"

Starscream continued to stare at him suspiciously, but his face slowly cleared. Finally, he sniffed contemptuously and picked up the datapad again.

"Okay, so Starscream left my quarters," Thundercracker said, trying to get the conversation back on track. "What happened then?"

"Well, I asked him to tell me a story," Skywarp said uneasily.

Mentally, Thundercracker groaned and buried his faceplates in his servos. Externally, he said "And…did he?"

"Yeah," Skywarp said with a shudder.

"And what _was_ the story?" Thundercracker asked suspiciously. He shot a glance over at Starscream, who had slowly positioned the datapad so as to block any eye contact. Thundercracker had a feeling he knew precisely what kind of story he must have told Skywarp.

"It was awful," Skywarp said in a sort of hushed whisper. "There was this hydro-weasel's claw - "

"Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me," Thundercracker snapped, standing up to glare at Starscream. "_Really_, Starscream?"

"I have no idea what you're yelling at me for," Starscream shot back, flicking a digit across the datapad's screen. "It was one stupid story. I made up for it, anyway."

"How," Thundercracker demanded, crossing his arms.

Starscream's optics flickered up to meet Thundercracker's with annoyance. "By giving him chemicals to play with," Starscream snapped. "They changed color, and I figured it'd shut him up long enough for me to get some work done. Satisfied?" He immediately went back to looking at this datapad.

Thundercracker was a little taken aback. "You…wait, you _actually - _"

"Did something nice for someone?" Starscream asked dryly, not looking up. "Shocking, I know, but it _does_ happen. Occasionally." He looked uncomfortable, exasperated, but Thundercracker wasn't sure if it was with himself or the mech he was refusing to looking at. "The mech helped save my life, alright? And since the story seemed to upset him so much, I figured I'd pay him back for his help in making sure I didn't die." He continued to glare at Thundercracker, as if daring the other mech to contradict his rational, to tell him he was secretly a nice mech.

"O…kay." Thundercracker didn't know how to react to this. A nice Starscream? A _considerate Starscream?_ Unsettled, he turned to the mech he _did_ know how to react to - Skywarp. "So what happened next, Warp?"

"Well like Star said, I played with chemicals."

"Star," the mech in question muttered, too quietly for any of them to hear. He smiled a little at that.

"I guess I fell asleep, though. And when I woke up, Starscream was gone. I tried to go back to sleep, but…I started thinking about that story." Skywarp hugged himself and brought his pedes up onto the berth, as though afraid something would reach out from under it and grab him. "I couldn't stop thinking about it. Every time I tried to fall asleep, I'd _think_ about it. And yesterday, you both yelled at me, and you were dying - "

"I wasn't actually," Thundercracker tried to explain.

"You _said_ you were!"

"Skywarp, it's a figure of speech!"

"You looked really sick!"

"I wasn't - !" Thundercracker paused, vented, took a moment to calm himself down. "Okay, you're right. I was in bad shape." He spread his arms wide. "Do I look sick now, though?"

Skywarp appraised him carefully. "No," he said with some uncertainty.

"Okay. So will you trust me when I say I wasn't actually dying?"

After a few moments, Skywarp nodded.

"Okay. So, you were upset because you thought I was dying and we both yelled at you."

"Right," Skywarp said, back on track. He vented tiredly. "I couldn't sleep, and…I was lonely. And 'facing usually makes it easier to fall into recharge, so I thought - "

"Okay, I get the picture," Thundercracker said quickly, not eager to hear the rest of what happened. Skywarp looked away, a little shamefacedly. Thundercracker drew air uncertainly into his systems. "So, um…did it…you know…help?"

Skywarp shook his head. He turned to look at Starscream. "That was so horrible, what happened to you, Starscream. And…I can't stop thinking about it. How do _you_ recharge at night?"

"I offline my optics and think pretty thoughts," Starscream replied glibly, engrossed once more in the datapad.

"No, seriously. How do you do it?"

"I'm sorry, I'm missing something here," Thundercracker said. "What did Starscream go through?"

"The hydro-weasel's claw," Skywarp whispered. It was loud anyways. "One of Starscream's roommates found it, and it - "

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know the story," Thundercracker interrupted. "Everybody does."

"They _do_?" Skywarp gasped. "Then why is everyone so mean to you?" Skywarp demanded of Starscream. "If they know what you've been through - "

"Hold up, wait," Thundercracker jumped in, "Did Starscream tell you that story happened to him?" Skywarp nodded. Thundercracker glanced over at Starscream, who was sitting _very_ still, optics fixed on the datapad, unmoving. Thundercracker wasn't impressed. "Um…Skywarp…you know that what Starscream told you… it's just a _story_."

Skywarp shook his head. "No, Starscream told me it actually happened to him."

Thundercracker stared at Skywarp for a minute. Then he snapped around to spit at Starscream "You_ idiot!_"

Starscream dropped the datapad. "How in Primus's name can you think this is _my_ fault?" he demanded. "How was _I_ supposed to know he'd take that so literally?"

"Because he's _Skywarp_," Thundercracker snapped back.

"Yeah, and like you pointed out, _everybody knows that damned story_."

"Well apparently not!"

Starscream threw his servos up, then leaned over and recovered the datapad he'd thrown down. "I'm not talking to you until you decide to be reasonable," Starscream hissed, and stared resolutely at the datapad.

"This is not my mess! You can't unload this on me!" Thundercracker protested. Starscream just ignored him. "Starscream, you pit-roasted ground crawler, _help_ me!"

"Not. Talking. To you. What part of that didn't make sense?" Starscream asked, still not looking up.

Thundercracker growled. "Fine!" he snapped. "I'll just fix _your_ fragging screw-up myself, shall I?"

"Whatever," Starscream retorted.

Thundercracker rolled his eyes and turned back to Skywarp, who was looking at the two of them in wide-eyed, uncomprehending curiosity. The blue mech ventilated a few times, trying to cool down his systems.

When he was calmer, Thundercracker knelt beside his berth. "Here's the thing, Skywarp. That story Starscream told you? It's not a real story."

"But Starscream _said - _" Skywarp maintained obstinately.

"I know. I know he did," Thundercracker said calmly. Inside, though, he _seethed_, because Starscream was a callous, shortsighted, loud-mouthed _brat_. "But…see, that's just a storytelling trick, Skywarp. You say it really happened to you, and that makes the story scarier than it is. But I _promise_ you, Warp, it isn't real."

"But Starscream _said - _"

"I know he said that!" Thundercracker exploded. At the look of fear in Skywarp's optics, Thundercracker sighed, struggling to get his temper under control."Sorry. Look…what _exactly_ did Starscream say," he asked. In the back of his mind, an idea was forming.

"Um…" Skywarp said a little sheepishly.

"Can you remember the story? Word for word?"

Skywarp continued to look a little sheepish. Finally, he shook his head.

"Starscream, can you tell us the story again?" Thundercracker asked. When Starscream just continued to read, Thundercracker blew out air. "It doesn't technically count as talking to me," he told the sulking red and blue mech. "It counts as talking _at_ me. I thought you _liked_ being the center of attention."

Starscream shot him an annoyed look, then set the datapad down. "One night, me and my friends - "

"Stop right there," Thundercracker said triumphantly, and Starscream snarled at him.

"Don't order me to tell you a story if you're just going to interrupt right away," he snapped, but Thundercracker ignored him.

"Skywarp, I have proof that this didn't actually happen to Starscream."

"What is it?" Skywarp asked as Starscream rolled his optics and muttered "Yeah right."

"He started out the story by telling you that he and his friends found the claw, right? But Starscream doesn't _have_ friends!"

Starscream gave a start and began spluttering. Skywarp looked at him, then back at Thundercracker. "Yeah he does. He's got us."

Starscream froze and stared, a look of shock on his face. Thundercracker smiled. "Yeah, but we're not the friends he's talking about, is he?"

Skywarp thought about that for a minute. Suddenly he looked over at Starscream. "Oh," he said as the realization dawned clearly across his faceplates.

"Now just wait a minute, you slag-guzzling, fume-huffing aft-'facing organic," Starscream said, launching himself out of his chair and heading straight for Thundercracker, who was grinning triumphantly. Over the sound of Starscream's furious insults and Thundercracker's laughter, Skywarp started peppering Starscream with questions.

"Did you actually know a mech named Steerclear or Aircurrent? Have you ever actually seen a hydro-weasel? Why a hydro-weasel's claw? I think a tooth would be a lot more scary. They can bite right through steel-plated armor you know. Hey, have you ever had your armor bitten through, Starscream? Does it hurt? I bet it does. How did Stabilizer react when you came into the medbay with bite-marks?"

Starscream ignored him, opting instead to chase Thundercracker around his tiny room, banging his own wings into the desk along the way. It didn't deter Skywarp any, as he just stood on the berth and shouted questions and observations down at the two mechs.

"This is why you don't have friends, you know," Thundercracker crowed as Starscream tried to corner him between his closet and his desk.

Starscream just snarled and grabbed at Thundercracker, who ducked past him and went skipping back to the berth, laughing.

While Starscream continued to chase Thundercracker around for another twenty minutes or so, he found that he wasn't actually angry at the mech. In fact, he felt his spark grow a little warmer. Skywarp had said they were his friends _and Thundercracker hadn't denied it_. For one of the first times in his life, Starscream realized that he felt the same way about them.

Not that he was ever going to admit it to either of them.


End file.
